The Marauders’ Years: Year One
by JadeyTheKitty
Summary: The first year of Hogwarts for the group that will become known as the four Marauders.
1. Chapter 1: Secrets of Hogwarts

**The Marauders' Years: Year One**

**Chapter One **

_**Secrets of Hogwarts**_

Like every year, the Hogwarts Express platform was full of students and their parents.

Every few minutes a new group would fall through the barrier and head off to meet up with old friends or to store their school things on board the train. The noise was deafening as students and parents in varying arrays of pseudo muggle clothes continued last minute conversations and argued good-naturedly.

Sirius Black appeared through the barrier at five minutes 'til the train's departure looking slightly flustered. Despite having grown up in a wizarding family, he still thought it a bit odd to walk (or rather, run, in Sirius's case) through the solid barrier between platforms nine and ten.

Furiously wishing that his parents had at least bothered to tell him what to do, Sirius set off across the busy platform dragging his new Hogwarts' trunk. He would've stuck around to thank the family who'd informed him how to get onto the platform (a slim woman and a man who was amusing himself with pointing out how absurd Muggles' hats looked. Plus their daughter, a girl with brown hair who was going into her first year, and their son; a tall fifth year boy who one wouldn't think would belong to such a nice family with that sneer on his face), but Sirius's main thoughts at the moment were focused along the lines of getting onto the train.

If he had to run through some other obstacle course to get onto the bloody thing, Sirius was going to throw his trunk down and sulk.

Sighing and taking a moment to shove his hair back from his face, Sirius peered around at the faces of well-wishers and the students who hadn't boarded yet in hopes of spotting Remus Lupin.

He had met the boy in Diagon Alley while getting his wand. Remus had been a little leery of him, but Sirius had rather liked the other boy. There was something about quiet people that made him want to make them talk. It drove him mad that some people didn't fill every possible minute with chatter.

"All aboard!" called a voice hidden behind a sudden cloud of steam.

Sirius blinked, giving up on his search for Remus and turning toward the train. He continued dragging his trunk, making no effort to lift it up off of the ground. At this point he didn't care a bit that it was becoming scratched up along the way

~*~

After walking down the aisle for several moments, Sirius finally found Remus in one of the compartments – the one next to the end, to be precise. The pale boy was breathing deeply, slumped with his face pressed against the window and fast asleep. Another boy was sitting on the seat opposite Remus and he waved to Sirius when he spotted him looking in.

"C'mon, have a seat if you want. I don't think this bloke'll mind much as long as we don't wake him."

Sirius grinned and stashed his trunk in the space provided before sitting down. "How'd you know it'd bother him if we decided to wake him?"

"Already tried waking him up once; he nearly bit my head off!" the boy explained with a short laugh, then added, "James Potter," as an afterthought and held out his hand.

"Sirius Black," Sirius answered, shaking James's hand.

James raised an eyebrow at his surname, but didn't comment on it further.

"Do you like Quidditch?" James questioned instead as he fiddled with a chocolate frog container. He already had a small number of cards on the seat beside him, and all but the ones featuring Quidditch players had been tossed on the floor.

Sirius wondered idly where he had gotten it… he'd like a chocolate frog right about now. He'd obtain one later… one way or another.

"Of course not." Sirius said, baiting the trap for the boy with the messy black hair.

"You can't be serious?" James asked incredulously, spluttering slightly. "Not a jot?"

"Of course I can! Sirius Black, remember?" And so the trap was sprung; soon all of Hogwarts would become aware of the worst pun at Sirius's disposal.

The two boys stared at each other for a full minute before bursting into laughter and diving into a conversation about the finer points of Quidditch.

~*~

The hours and the scenery passed by quickly. Soon the countryside was bathed in darkness, and when it became difficult to see much of anything out the window, Sirius stretched his arms over his head and glanced at James who had taken to working on a lengthy letter to his parents.

Feeling Sirius's gaze, James smirked a little and waved his quill slightly. "I reckon if I write a monstrous letter, they'll not expect another one from me for months."

"I wouldn't _want_ another one after reading that thing." Sirius shook his head, bemused at his new acquaintance.

James made a show of sighing and putting the letter (no, not letter – _Novel_, Sirius thought) away. "Right. You disapprove, Mr. Black. What's a better way to waste time?"

It was a good question, and one Sirius fully intended to give an admirable answer to. He only needed to think of one.

The good thing about coming up with answers, though, was that you could come up with them as you went along.

"Follow me."

"To?"

"The promised land."

"Of?"

Sirius gave James a pointed look.

James lifted his hands, fighting a grin. "Right, right. Following. Lead on, Black."

Sirius did, racking his mind furiously for what to do as he stepped out into the hall and glanced briefly around. It couldn't be that hard to find something more interesting than writing home, could it?

"I don't fancy that it's more interesting out here than it is back in the compartment," James mused, lifting one eyebrow lazily. "Are you sure we're off to the promised land, Sirius?"

"Promised land?"

Both boys jumped slightly at the third voice. Neither of them had seen the third boy leaning against the doorway of the open compartment, and now he was staring at them, waiting for some sort of explanation.

"Jamesie here," Sirius began, only to be cut off sharply by the aforementioned.

"_James_."

Him," Sirius continued smoothly, jerking his thumb toward the bespectacled boy. "He was just telling me of a promised land. A land filled with girls who have no idea what lies before them – girls who need an arm to cling to, a shoulder to cry on. Girls who need blokes like us. It's our _duty_ to travel there and find them."

The other boy didn't look impressed. "Really, now?"

"Couldn't have put it better myself," James confirmed, flashing Sirius a grin.

"Loons," the boy muttered under is breath, but nevertheless he stuck out his hand. "Frank Longbottom."

Sirius grasped his hand firmly. "Sirius."

He wasn't going to bandy around his surname any more today. After the events of that morning… Sirius really didn't want to think about his family.

"James Potter," James said next, pumping Frank's hand once. "Future Quidditch captain. Best to do like Sirius here and chum around with me while everyone else hasn't realized how famous I am."

At Frank's skeptical look, Sirius took it as his cue to grin brightly. "My new best mate here has a big head."

"No bigger than yours," James quipped back.

"You only _dream_ your ego was as big as mine."

Frank waved both hands in front of him to stave off the banter. "You can have an ego the size of Australia for all I care, just get out of the bloody way. The sweets trolley'll be along shortly and I don't want her turning round because you lot decided to work out who the bigger prat is."

Sirius snorted, trying to hold back a laugh as he backed up a step. James started to move away as well, grinning widely.

"We love you, too, Longbottom," Sirius called over his shoulder.

The only answer he received was a derisive snort.

James grinned at Sirius as they made their way back to the compartment. "Don't know for sure yet, but that might have been more entertaining than letter writing."

"Only might?" Sirius lifted an eyebrow in feigned amazement.

"What can I say?" James shrugged a little. "I'm spoiled."

Sirius snickered and followed James back into compartment. Already he could tell that this Potter character was going to be an entertaining person to get to know.

For the better part of an hour, the two had the compartment to themselves aside from the sleeping form of Remus. At one point, a girl with bright-red hair looked into their compartment and announced that the prefects were saying they would be getting to Hogwarts soon. She didn't stick around, however, as she seized the arm of her friend (a boy with lank, greasy hair who stared at Sirius and James uneasily) and hurried off to find the rest of the first years.

There was a short, fierce argument as to who would be the one to wake Remus up, but finally Sirius rose to the challenge and shook the other boy awake with only minor difficulty. Quickly, they put on their robes and took turns pressing their noses to the glass, trying to see when the school would appear before them.

It was another fifteen minutes before the train came to a stop. As soon as it did, the three boys scrambled out of their compartment to join the throng of students heading for the exits. Sirius was mildly amused to note that James kept looking around, trying to catch a glimpse of the redhead from earlier.

"Firs' years o'er here!" an unusually tall man called, making Sirius jump when his booming voice sounded from a spot overhead that the boy didn't think even an adult should be tall enough to occupy.

Sirius looked up into the lantern light and found himself a little in awe of the man's height. He didn't have time to gawk for long, however, as James elbowed him and hurried him along after the rest of the group.

Sticking together, the three boys made their way to a group of boats, chose one, and got in (Remus Lupin in back, James Potter and Sirius Black in the middle, and Frank Longbottom in the front.).

"Wonder what all lives in there?" James pondered aloud, leaning out of the boat as it glided silently across the lake.

"A giant squid, I hear," Frank Longbottom commented, also leaning out to peer into the dark depths.

"I wouldn't lean so far out..." Remus cautioned.

An evil grin flitted across Sirius's face. "What's everyone's opinions on pranks?"

"Hilarious," James answered automatically, but was distracted immediately from the question as he continued searching for the squid.

"Dangerous," Frank said in the same distracted tone as James.

"Both," Remus said. Having been the only one really paying attention, he was now watching Sirius warily. "…why?"

"Then it's settled!" Sirius announced gleefully. Getting closer to the castle had completely penetrated his melancholy mood from earlier that morning – he was ready to have so _fun_.

"What's settl— GAH!"

Remus's cut off his question with a surprised yelp and clung to the side of the boat as Sirius began rocking their small craft back and forth while laughing crazily.

James and Frank tumbled in first, coming up spluttering and shouting, then Remus lost his death grip on the boat's sides and joined them in the lake, with a final maniacal laugh Sirius somehow turned the boat over and joined his fellow soon-to-be first years in the chilly water.

The girl who had warned them to get ready earlier, along with three other girls screamed in unison as their boat collided with the boys' boat, sending them into the lake as well.

A third boat joined the pile-up, sending several more students along with the greasy haired boy into the chilly waters.

It took nearly half an hour for the giant of a man from earlier to fish them all back out.

~*~

After the general mayhem of James and Remus trying to yell at Sirius, laugh, and keep from drowning at the same time, and the girls' threats of unspeakable revenge, everyone found themselves lined up in the Great Hall, soaking wet. A few moments ago Mcgonagall had said it was the worst demonstration of poor behavior she had ever seen on the first day of Hogwarts and gave all four of the boys detentions, much to Frank and Remus's horror. Sirius and James, however, were quite pleased. Apparently they had broken the record for the most people to have ever fallen into the lake in one crossing (the previous record having been set during a particularly nasty storm in which only three students had fallen overboard).

With their punishments handed out, the boys were at last sent into the Great Hall with the other first years. After they were all lined up, the sorting hat took a deep breath and began its song, which Sirius recalled going something like:

_You may suppose I'm ratty,_

_Or just plain old and worn_

_Perhaps I think you're bratty?_

_But as to your personality I'm torn_

_Mayhap you're like Godric Gryffindor, and braver you could not be._

_Red and gold, brave and true, these are traits to be admired._

_Or maybe as with gentle Helga Hufflepuff, kindness flows from you while you're busy as a bee!_

_Hardworking 'n kind sums it all up – good true traits even if the house is not oft' desired._

_And yet, are you like Rowena Ravenclaw? Witty and charming, I'm sure._

_Knowledge is, to you, an important asset and a goal._

_Last, might you be like Salazar Slytherin, and though most cunning of the lot you're not one to abhor._

_Cunning and bright – some say handsome to boot, or say you've the countenance of a troll._

_I hope you think me not insulting; I speak the truth of course._

_Just put me on your head and I'll find which is the path you'll tread!_

"Barry, Kendra," Professor McGonagall called out crisply, apparently not as thrown by the hat suddenly singing as the first years were.

A dark-skinned girl grinned nervously as she eased over to the stool and let the hat drop down over her eyes. The silence seemed to drag on forever to Sirius, but every time he started to fidget, McGonagall would shoot him a scathing look over her square spectacles.

Finally the hat shouted, "_**Ravenclaw!**_"

"Black, Sirius."

Sirius trotted up to the three-legged stool and, grinning brightly, dropped the sorting hat onto his head.

"_Another Black." _The sorting hat muttered distastefully, before brightening a bit. _"Hm. Not the same. No. Maybe like your cousin? No, not exactly, she was suited for Hufflepuff. You might actually be a challenge. Hmmm... Yes. It's here in your head. You don't want to be like them, hm? Want to make a point after that row, I bet? Got a thing against Hufflepuff and Slytherin, eh? Courage is here, oh yes. You've got a reckless streak in you, too. Hmmm... Yes... Better be..... __**GRYFFINDOR!**__" _

The Gryffindor table cheered as Sirius took off the hat and walked towards them in a sort of haze, thoroughly and happily surprised. After all of that time this morning trying to work out what to do to get back at his mum and dad… he had never even considered this. It was _perfect_.

"Blanchester, Alice" became the next new Gryffindor as Sirius took a seat at the Gryffindor table, ignoring some of the odd looks he got from the students who were familiar with his surname. "Cork, Thomas" and "Duble, Sarah" became Ravenclaws.

McGonagall studied the parchment in her hand for several seconds, narrowing her eyes as she studied the name. "Esper, Elizabeth"

Elizabeth, one of the girls that had been in Lily's boat, walked up and sat on the stool. Sirius was amused to note that a small puddle was starting to form around the stool at this point. The hat took a long moment before shouting out: _**"GRYFFINDOR!"**_

"Evans, Lily."

The girl with the bright red hair walked nervously to the sorting hat, chewing on her bottom lip.

"_**GRYFFINDOR!"**_

"Finn, Melanie" became the first Hufflepuff, earning a long round of applause from the table with the black and yellow hangings.

"Longbottom, Frank."

"_**GRYFFINDOR!"**_

McGonagall calling, "Lupin, Remus" earned Sirius's wavering attention again, and he turned quickly from his observation of the other tables.

Gingerly Remus placed the hat on his head, and nearly let out a yelp when it started muttering in his ear.

"_Interesting. Dumbledore must be doing you a great favor. Yes, very interesting. Not much of a conversationalist, are you?_ _Usually students blabber nonstop about a talking hat.... Hmmm... A nice mind... But... Aha! There it is: a wish to be in Gryffindor. Got a friend there, have you?_ _Hmm.... Gryffindor trade marks are all here as well as Ravenclaw. I can tell that you'll do well in... __**GRYFFINDOR!**__"_

Remus nearly slipped in the puddle of water as he hurried to take his seat by the grinning Sirius.

"Patil, Patrick."

"_**RAVENCLAW!"**_

Several other students were called up after that – a couple Slytherins, two Ravenclaws, and five Hufflepuffs before, "Pettigrew, Peter" was called. The sorting hat took its time with him (Sirius muttered to Remus that the boy with the fair hair, watery eyes, and scared expression looked like a Hufflepuff). No one, however, was more surprised than Peter when the sorting hat finally shouted out, _**"GRYFFINDOR!"**_

Soon only two students were left to be sorted – James and another girl.

"Potter, James." Mcgonagall gave him a reproachful glance, praying that he didn't end up in...

"_**GRYFFINDOR!"**_

James jogged to the Gryffindor table and sat himself down between the Pettigrew boy and Sirius, then turned to watch the next student get sorted.

"Silverfire, Allysia."

The girl walked up to the sorting hat, dripping water off her robes from her dunk in the lake with Lily and the other girls and wringing her hands nervously as the hat was placed on her head. Sirius realized with a jolt that she was the girl whose mum and dad had told him how to get through the barrier. He cheered as loudly as the rest when the hat shouted,_**"GRYFFINDOR!"**_ Her brother, a Slytherin, didn't cheer. But, then again, Sirius knew that his own relatives had been rather silent during his sorting.

Once the final few first years were called and sorted, the Great Hall immediately broke out into a low murmur of conversation as the students turned their attention from the new arrivals' sorting and onto the students sitting around them.

"When do you think they serve dinner?" Peter asked James timidly.

James shrugged, and then directed his attention to the teacher's table as the headmaster stood up, waving one hand delicately to calm the conversations.

He waited patiently for everyone to trail off into silence, and while he did, Sirius propped his elbows on the table and studied the man his parents had grudgingly admitted to being a good headmaster when he wasn't letting in any filth who could halfway pretend to do magic into the school.

Dumbledore wasn't anything like Sirius expected a headmaster to look. He wasn't cold and stern, but instead seemed cheerful and had a somewhat humorous air about him. Instead of calling for attention again, the old wizard waited patiently for two excited Hufflepuff girls to stop giggling from the conversation they had just been engaged in.

Once everyone quieted, he spoke. "A few warnings to our new first years before we stuff ourselves. The forbidden forest is out of school bounds... at all times." Dumbledore gave a meaningful look in Sirius's direction when the boy's eyes lit up at the word 'forbidden'. "Thus you should not risk going there. The girls' toilet on the second floor is out of order this year due to frequent floods. Third years should remember to have their permission slips ready for Hogsmeade weekends; the dates will be posted on the notice board. On a last note, I would like to congratulate Misters Black, Potter, Lupin, and Longbottom, for causing the largest boat wreck we at Hogwarts have ever seen, and also the earliest detention we have seen handed out in many long years. Now let us feed ourselves well before you get substance to keep between your ears tomorrow... Fill up!"

James, Remus, and Sirius looked at each other sheepishly before piling up their plates with the newly appeared food.

~*~

After the feast Frank, Remus, Sirius, and James followed a prefect ("Full of himself git!" Sirius called him under his breath) to the common rooms.

"The password is 'goldensnitch'," the prefect drawled, stopping in front of a portrait of the largest woman Sirius had ever laid eyes on. "We keep it simple the first week for you first years, but you'll have to remember a more complicated one when she changes it."

Sirius and James exchanged glances, and Sirius noted that the other boy looked rather pleased by the password. Apparently he was taking it as a good sign – earlier on the train James had been worrying about going into Quidditch withdrawal while at school.

They received the usual instructions on which room was theirs and were then informed that their trunks had already been brought up.

The boys skipped over having a good look around their new common room in favor of making their way upstairs to change from their slightly damp robes.

"Formal introductions or you shall pay a price _most_ dear," Sirius ordered as he sat down on his new bed.

"Frank Longbottom..." Frank said, glancing at Sirius oddly. "Are you quite right in the head? Haven't we done this already?"

"Frank? Got it. I'll spare your insignificant mortal life – _this_ time," Sirius said instead of answering.

"James Potter," James said, grinning and shaking everyone's hand that he could reach.

"May your life be long and may Merlin's long-dead face smile upon you!"

"Peter Pettigrew," Peter introduced with a squeak and a frightened look at Sirius, who he thought was quite insane. Peter was already dreading the thought that he would be his roommate for the next seven years.

"May you now be blessed by the hamsters and become a squeaky, hamster brethren someday!" Sirius said, grinning.

"Remus Lupin... and who are you to speak in the name of the hamsters?" Remus asked with a barely concealed laugh.

"I am the most honorable ambassador of the L.o.P.H.i.B.S., the Legion of Purple Hamsters in Business Suits! I am otherwise known as Sirius Black."

"That's a mouthful…" Frank commented, still staring at Sirius as if he thought the boy would do well in St. Mungos.

As they unpacked their things and made everything ready for bed, everyone occasionally glanced at one another despite the silence, trying to size up who was joking and who was off his rocker...

As he pulled the curtains closed around his four-poster, Sirius smiled to himself. Earlier that morning he had vowed to quit speaking to his mum for the rest of his life (something that he knew wouldn't last more than the time between now and the first holiday), but now he had four new dorm mates and he'd become rather notorious – the headmaster himself had even mentioned his name.

All in all… Sirius felt rather cheerful as he drifted to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2: Revenge and a Boggart

**The Marauders' Years: Year One******

**Chapter Two **

**Revenge and a Boggart**

* * *

James and Sirius walked down the hallways towards Charms class, the two had found a common interest in pranks and had taken it upon them to drag the other three boys in their dorm room into the happy world that was pranking. So far they had managed to talk Remus into coming along on a few of their pranks. Peter seemed in awe of them and it wasn't too difficult to get him to assist on their many endeavors. Frank, however, had told them quite bluntly that he wasn't about to lose a single house point for Gryffindor just to curse a few Slytherins into being unable to stop saying 'Go, go Gryffindor!'

Of course their plans were much more complex than getting Slytherins to root for the opposing team, the boys just hadn't thought of any other plans as of yet.

-

"What do you reckon?" James asked Sirius as the two turned the last corner before the Charms classroom.

"About what?" Sirius asked, nodding hello to Peeves. The mischievous poltergeist had agreed to stay out of their way during pranks and other things if they stayed out of his, which included not warning other students about things he was about to do.

"Retaliation, Revenge."

"Oh that." Sirius waved James's worries off as he would an annoying fly. "Evans and those other girls have been threatening revenge on us for a week, ever since they fell in the lake. It's just a bluff."

James nodded reluctantly, not quite as sure of it as Sirius was.

-

"Today class" Professor Flitwick began in his usual high-pitched, squeaky voice. "We'll learn how to make golden bubbles come out from the ends of our wands. This charm is great for decorating around Christmas time. Now we use this wrist movement-"

Sirius and James toned Flitwick out as a more pressing matter came to hand. Lily and her three friends: Alice, Allysia, and Lizz, were huddled together ignoring the lesson and talking quietly amongst themselves. This was a bad sign in the view of the two boys. Lily excelled at Charms and she loved the class. If she wasn't paying attention then something was afoot.

"What do you make of it?" Sirius asked quietly as he eyed the girls.

"Trouble." James answered.

"Sh!" Remus hissed, turning around in his seat to glare at them. "I can't hear the Professor over your babbling!"

Professor Flitwick paused in the middle of demonstrating the correct wrist movements, "Did you have a question, Mr. Lupin?"

Remus sank down a bit in his chair after turning back around. "No, sir." He muttered, his face turning slightly pink.

The rest of the lesson continued quite smoothly. James's and Lily's groups all managed to do the charm, even Peter managed it, although his charm produced a stream of bright purple colored bubbles which Sirius assured him was a sign from the hamsters. Flitwick signaled the end of class and the group of Gryffindor first years trooped off to their next class: Defense Against the Dark Arts.

-

"Would you believe our luck?" Frank asked as he took his place by James and the rest. "They've put us in here with the Slytherins."

"Surely not all Slytherins are evil?" Alice asked from her position by Lily.

"Oy. You'll find out soon enough." Frank replied.

Everyone quieted down as the Professor came in. This particular professor always seemed to be in a hurry. So far he hadn't even bothered to introduce himself to the class. No one appeared to be on his good or bad side, which disappointed the Slytherins who never missed an opportunity to capitalize on teachers' likes or dislikes in students.

"Shove those desks out of the way…" He commanded while tugging a large trunk into the room.

Curious as to what was in the trunk everyone complied, shoving the desks toward the other end of the room. Some students, however, opted to practice a bit of magic to move the desk, which caused quite a pile up.

"Right, right. Boggarts. Come on up." The professor said, waving his wand to repair any damage to the furniture.

Several students stared quizzically at one another. Did he just call them 'Boggarts?'

The professor blinked when no one came forward. "Oh... Boggarts. Could someone explain what they are?"

Remus's hand barely beat Lily's hand in being raised.

"A boggart is a creature that can take the form of your worst fear..." Remus answered timidly, he wasn't exactly thrilled with speaking in public. "They're usually found hiding in dark protected areas. Like drawers, closets, and-"

"Trunks." The professor finished. "Now, whoever wants to come first, you need to think of a way to dispel your fear by making it amusing and say 'Riddiculus'."

Sirius and James proceeded to enter a silent shoving match to make the other go first as Peter tried to shrink to the back of the room and become one with the wall.

Frank watched them with a raised eyebrow, wondering what would happen if he just booted the two of them to the front of the class. Finally James stepped forward, grinning lopsidedly as he usually did if he was mildly embarrassed or slightly nervous.

"Right then, have at it." The professor stepped back and popped the latch on the trunk with his wand. Immediately a large something crawled out of the trunk.

"A...a...big... PINK BUNNY!" Sirius collapsed to the floor in a fit of laughter, holding his sides and struggling to breathe.

"Riddiculus." James muttered crossly, and the large rabbit turned into a cracked Easter egg.

"Keep moving. Next!" The professor called, paying no attention to all the laughter.

Alice squared her shoulders and marched up next, and the boggart changed quickly as lightning into a vicious-looking snake. Alice gave a startled shriek and darted back over to Lily as Sirius hurried forward to take her place. The boggart changed again, turning into a purple hamster...

"What the bloody hell is that?" James asked, pointing at the small purple rodent.

Sirius ignored him, doing a small victory dance around the confused boggart. "I knew it could be tricked! I knew it!!!"

After the general pandemonium that was Sirius settled down, the professor announced that it had been enough for one day and assigned them the task of preparing for the next lesson at which time they would be quizzed on boggarts and each given another turn at facing one.

-

"A pink bunny, Potter?" Frank asked incredulously on the way to dinner. "What's the story behind that one?"

"I'll never tell!" James yelled slightly louder than he had meant to.

"You're being unusually quiet, Sirius." Remus observed; turning his attention from James (who was now mumbling about some incident during Easter) to Sirius.

"I was just thinking..."

"About what?" Peter asked as they turned again and entered the Great Hall.

"Wouldn't it be brilliant if we could get a hold of that boggart and set it loose in the Slytherin common room?"

"I don't think so, Sirius." Frank said, shaking his head.

The five boys made their way to the Gryffindor table and sat down amid a large bout of laughter.

"What do you think is so funny?" Frank asked, peering around for the source of the commotion.

James gave a little half shrug as he leaned back to look down the table. His mouth fell open in shock the next minute.

"What's up?" Sirius asked, munching on some treacle pudding that had just appeared on one of the golden platters that lined the table.

James shook his head mutely and pointed at the back of Peter's robes. There, shining brightly in shocking pink lettering were the words: 'I've broken the record for boat crashes, please tell me when I've broken the one for stupidity?'

Sirius stared in horror, quickly looking at the back of his own robes before bolting for the door. The other four followed suit, leaving behind a lot of laughter and the smirking faces of Lily and her friends.

Eleven year olds may not come up with the most original plots for revenge, but what they do usually works, and it had worked.

-

The five boys had remained in the common room for a while after the incident. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter plotting the counter strike on Lily, Frank watching with the barest of interest.

Frank stood up and yawned, waving sleepily before turning and heading up to the first year boys' dorm without another word. Sirius concentrated on a piece of parchment on one of the small tables; furiously scribbling on it with his quill while Remus prodded another piece of parchment with his wand. After Sirius had finished writing James handed him a small book with the words 'Lily's Diary' scrawled across the front in what was obviously not Lily Evans's writing. Remus muttered a spell and attached the pages to the inside of the book. The boys carefully placed the fraudulent diary on a table where it would be easily spotted and walked upstairs with a feeling of accomplishment. Several hours later there was a shriek of anger from a certain red haired girl.

* * *

_Jade's Note:_

I forgot to mention to keep a sharp eye out for changes if you're re-reading. You might find out one of the many things written in Lily's Diary. The rest of the entries (The more embarrassing ones.) written in the fraudulent diary are strictly confidential to spare Lily humiliation.


	3. Chapter 3: Strange happenings

**The Marauders' Years: Year One******

**Chapter 3**

**Strange happenings**

* * *

The weeks went by quickly for everyone in the first year boys' dorm; especially so for James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus who had made a notorious name for themselves pulling pranks on students and teachers alike. They had even gotten an actual name for their group from Lily's bunch when they called them, while trying to think up a word to describe just how terrible they were, 'Marauders.' The rest of what they said most likely wouldn't be fit to write...

-

Sirius wandered down from the boys' dorm and into the seemingly deserted common room, not many Gryffindors were up and about in the dead of night. Sirius, however, thrived at being up that late. After all, the best time for setting up his newest masterpiece of a prank was when every sane person was asleep in bed.

"Anyone about?" Sirius queried, already knowing the answer.

"Oy, over hear!" James motioned from by the fireplace for his friend to come and join him.

Sirius wound his way around the normal obstacles in the room, which included the armchairs, tables, forgotten book-bags, empty peanut butter jars from the students with pet rats, and the occasional sleeping cat.

Apparently the house elves had yet to make their rounds.

When he finally made it to the fireplace, the only lit area of the room, he noticed that Peter had already arrived there before him. Usually Peter managed to get close to their meeting spots then he would always get sidetracked and forget what he was doing or get lost. Sirius thought it an amazing feat to get lost in the common room.

"Is Remus coming?" Peter asked hopefully remembering how Remus had suddenly fell ill yesterday and was talking about going to the hospital wing in the morning.

Sirius shook his head. "Nope, he was asleep. I didn't even ask him, he didn't look too well."

"Too bad." James said, "It's a shame he had to get sick his first month at Hogwarts."

The other two boys nodded sadly, the thrill of terrorizing Hogwarts having somewhat lessened after their brief conversation.

"Why don't we stay in the common room tonight?" Peter suggested. "I don't feel much like going out with Remus sick."

"Sure, we can work on our map." Sirius agreed, pulling out a piece of parchment with carefully drawn lines on part of the page. James and Peter crowded around eagerly, the map they were drawing up had been their idea to help Peter keep from getting lost and had been proven to be quite useful to that effect.

Unfortunately, they only had a tenth of the castle drawn and labeled.

The three worked on the map, occasionally one of them slipping out of the common room, despite their earlier agreement, to determine the exact location of a room. Several hours later they rolled up the piece parchment, preparing to head off to bed to get some sleep.

-

"What were you doing out of bed at this hour!?" McGonagall's voice floated through from the other side of the fat lady's portrait arresting the three's progress toward their room.

"Someone out of bed?" James asked to neither of the boys in particular.

"Without us?!" Sirius questioned, looking horrified and indignant at the thought of missing out on something.

"Least it's them and not us getting caught by the Professor." Peter added sagely.

"Point accepted." James and Sirius chorused as McGonagall came into the common room with a very worried looking Alice in tow.

"Alice?!"

Sirius's mouth had fallen open; she had been one of the ones he'd least suspect of sneaking out. Alice was right up there with Lily Evans on not breaking school rules.

"And why, might I dare to ask, are you three out of bed?" McGonagall asked, her nostrils flaring.

"Errrrrr..."

"Homework." James answered quickly, cutting off Peter's attempt at answering. "We were doing all of our homework for this week so we could go with Remus to the hospital wing."

Peter and Sirius pretended this story wasn't at all new to them and quickly nodded to back up his story.

"Fine, but you shouldn't stay up too late, boys. Alice, I'll see you in my office tomorrow to decide on a proper detention." McGonagall said, then she turned and walked out the same way she had come.

"What was that about?" James asked, directing his question at Alice as soon as their head of house was out of earshot.

"I-I-I.... D-dunno." Alice said shakily, "I don't remember even c-coming down here."

Sirius raised an eyebrow at his fellow marauders as Alice, seeming to suddenly remember something, raced up to her dorm looking terrified. James shrugged as the sound of Lily and her friends' surprised voices drifted down before Alice shut the door. They were definitely going to question either Alice or her companions tomorrow.

-

"She said she saw something really strange." Allysia told the three of them the next day at breakfast.

The boys hadn't managed to get Lily to say anything in the common room so Sirius, James, and Peter (Remus had already gone to see Madam Pomfrey) had asked her friends Allysia and Lizz.

"Some sort of small child." Lizz added in her usual tone of careless boredom as she carefully chose a piece of toast from a platter. "It must have been something evil."

"Why do you say that?" Peter asked looking terrified at the mere mentioning of something that scary possibly existing.

"Well, she doesn't remember going downstairs or anything." Allysia said. "She only remembers suddenly feeling really afraid, so she opened her eyes thinking she was still in bed having a nightmare or something, and she found herself in the middle of a hallway."

"With that creature before her." Lizz finished.

"What'd she do?" James asked curiously.

"Ran." Lizz stated simply as she stood up and grabbed her book bag. "That's enough of this talk. We're late."

Allysia nodded and retrieved her things, and with a final wave to the Marauders they were gone.

"Well that was odd." James said after a few minutes of silence.

"Lizz is always like that." Sirius said as he inspected his food, suspicious of being poisoned by one of the girls (Who he now suspected _still_ weren't over that dunk in the lake.) while he was distracted by the story.

"Not her." James said, irritated by his friend's lack of attention to the subject. "That stuff about Alice!"

"We should stay in the common room at night." Peter piped in. "It'd be safer."

Sirius ignored Peter's suggestion and nabbed a few pieces of toast that he'd deemed safe to eat before jumping to a completely unrelated topic. "Let's hurry up and go to class so we can visit the hospital wing."

-

Peter hadn't been in the hospital wing yet, but Sirius and James had already been there due to their early swim in the lake.

Madam Pomfrey bustled up to them, her arms full of bandages and other things.

"Mr. Lupin is over there." She said in way of greeting, inclining her head towards the other side of the hospital wing.

The three walked over to the area she had directed taking in the startling cleanliness of the hospital wing.

Sirius blinked as he took in the sights. The walls were white, the ceiling was white, even the floor was white! It was just unnatural it was _far_ too clean.

"Remmy, you look worse than normal!" Sirius announced cheerfully, shoving his thoughts aside as he dumped the homework Remus had missed getting in class that day onto the bed.

"Gee, thanks, Sirius." Remus replied sarcastically, retrieving the books and stacking them neatly on his bedside table.

James dragged a few chairs over and sat on one, before turning to talk to Remus who looked paler then normal and definitely ill. "How long are you in for?"

"I have to stay the night, Madam Pomfrey said I might be able the get back to school the day after tomorrow..." Remus answered.

"Two days?" Peter asked, turning away from staring at the various items in the hospital wing to stare wide-eyed at Remus.

Remus nodded affirmation.

"That's ridiculous!" James said.

"Complete nonsense!" Sirius agreed. Then, in an undertone, he added, "Want us to break you out? We've got Defense Against the Dark Arts tomorrow first thing. We're still doing Boggarts because half the class is still afraid of them. I know you don't want to miss getting a turn at facing one."

"No, it's all right guys. I think I'll stay here." Remus said hurriedly as Madam Pomfrey walked over.

"Visiting time is up, off to class now if you will." She said, hurrying them towards the door.

"I'll be fine." Remus reassured as he waved good-bye. "Just remember to take notes for once!" He yelled as Madam Pomfrey closed the door firmly in the other three's faces before they could protest.

-

"That was strange." Said James later that night in their dorm room.

"Specify." Sirius muttered as he placed the last card on top of his card tower.

"Eh, look out Sirius."

Sirius swore as the entire deck blew up in his face, charring his eyebrows considerably.

"Told you to look out." James reminded. "Anyway, Remus looked a little scared when we visited him."

"Scared?" Asked Peter from his position on the windowsill.

"Yeah." James continued now that both of the other boys were paying attention, which was quite a feat due to their short attention spans.

"He's not that sick.... is he?" Sirius questioned a note of worry creeping into his voice.

James shook his head. "He acted like he didn't want us hanging around.... But I wonder why he wouldn't?"

"Who knows?" Peter shrugged, going back to gazing out the window. "Full moon tonight. Look how big it is..."

* * *

_Jade's Note:_

-Randomly disclaims everything not owned.-


	4. Chapter 4: The nightmares begin

**The Marauders' Years: Year One******

**Chapter Four**

**The Nightmares Begin**

* * *

James didn't sleep well the following night, despite having went with Peter and Sirius to check on Remus after lunch and finding him to be getting better.... sort of. Madam Pomfrey hadn't allowed them to stay long, saying that Remus needed rest.

Finally, after sitting on his four-poster bed for a while longer mulling over Remus's sudden illness, James fell asleep.

-

Sirius blinked blearily as James got out of bed and made his way stiffly out of the dorm. "Where're s'ya goin'?" He managed to mumble groggily after his best friend.

Sirius waited a few moments for an answer that didn't come before yawning, turning over, and going back to sleep.

-

James continued down the stairs and out through the portrait hole, he didn't bother shutting the portrait quietly or moving stealthily through the corridors as he usually did, but instead continued walking in the same stiff fashion as he had been doing when he left the dorm room. He continued down the halls for several minutes, going through secret passages and taking shortcuts to get to the dungeon hallways as quickly as possible. He passed by a portrait of fruit in a bowl, (which, last week, Sirius had discovered led to the kitchens.) and stopped in front of a suit of armor.

Nothing moved for several minutes.

"Do you know the Password?" The armor asked, banging its visor up and down noisily with each syllable.

"Dadrimé." James said, in a voice that wasn't quite his own.

Slowly and with difficulty the armor moved aside. James walked down the newly revealed passageway, sliding down a steep drop and exiting the hidden passage into the dungeons.

A small, ghostly-pale girl with a wide brimmed hat perched on her head stood before James. She didn't say a word, but only raised one small hand, beckoning him closer.

"Jaaaaaaammmmmmmmmeeeees!"

The girl retracted her hand, whipped around, and vanished down the corridor.

James stood there for a moment before the sound of his name being called again made him blink away the curiously glazed look in his eyes.

-

"What on earth do you think you were doing?" McGonagall asked angrily. Both James and Sirius were sitting in her office.

"I… I don't know, Professor." James whispered, focusing on his shoes rather than look the angry Professor in the eye.

McGonagall was taken aback for a moment; James Potter usually had a witty response to every question a teacher asked. Sirius too was staring at James, he had been the one calling him, and his yells had alerted Filch and McGonagall to their being out of bed.

"What do you mean?" She asked in a slightly softer tone, the look in his eyes matched the look in Alice Blanchester's eyes when she had been caught out of bed. A mingled look of confusion and fear of something unknown.

James ran his hand through his hair, a nervous as well as intentional habit, and told all he could remember, which didn't amount to much. Only finally falling asleep after being awake half the night and having an odd dream that he couldn't remember, then waking up to see Sirius tearing down the hall towards him. Sirius added in that he had seen someone... or something in the hallway with James.

McGonagall looked unnerved at this information. Someone luring students out of bed? This could be serious… "Argus will take you two back to your common room and will have his cat make sure no one else wanders out of Gryffindor tower and into the halls while they're asleep. I must go speak with the headmaster."

-

James yawned widely the next night, more than a little tired. No official announcements had been given to the students, the teachers didn't seem to have an explanation on the odd occurrence that had happened to both Alice and he. Thankfully, the morning after James's unintentional stroll through the castle was the beginning of the weekend, which meant no school.

Despite wishing to nod off to sleep, James dutifully stayed up with Sirius and Peter (All of whom were camped out on Remus's four poster) in the hopes that Madam Pomfrey had finally allowed Remus to leave the hospital wing. The three sat in silence for a long while, Peter and James struggling to stay awake. Slowly they nodded off and Sirius watched with amusement as they both dropped sideways, hitting their heads together like in a cartoon.

Before too long the boys heard the telltale sound of footsteps on the stone stairs and the light of what they guessed was a candle. Remus walked into the room, yawning in much the same way James had. In his hand was a small blue flame, which he had used to find his way in the dark. The three Marauders started to greet the last member of their group, but were cut off as Remus shoved them all promptly off of his bed and onto the floor before extinguishing the flame, curling up in his bed, and drifting off to sleep. Sirius, James, and Peter stared at one another, trying to decide whether or not to be offended.

"Guess it goes to show you." Sirius whispered after a long moment of silence. "You should never get between Remmy and a place to sleep."

James and Peter snickered appreciatively at that comment and then the three of them made their ways to their own beds and soon followed Remus's example of drifting off.

-

The next morning James and Peter awoke to find Remus sitting on his bed wide-awake and reading a muggle newspaper.

"Morning all." He greeted from behind the paper. "Should I wake Sirius up, or do we value our lives?"

James grinned at the normal morning banter that hadn't been going on for the few days Remus was ill.

Remus, having eventually caught on to the jokes of him being dangerous to awaken, took great joy in proving that Sirius was just as dangerous to wake up. (In the morning hours, that is, after midday and until four in the morning it was perfectly safe to wake Sirius up.)

"It's on your head." James answered cheerfully.

Peter quickly arranged his pillows in a makeshift barrier as Remus, calm as could be, pointed his wand at the sleeping Sirius and muttered a spell.

Sirius let out a yell that frightened several people in the common room as a jet of icy cold water sprayed his face. Remus quickly ducked behind his bed as Sirius, angrily shoving his sopping black hair out of his eyes, started throwing everything he could pick up at the other three boys in hopes of hitting his assailant.

James dodged a pillow that slammed into the wall and dived behind his own bed as a wizard alarm clock crashed into one of the posts of his four-poster.

Remus waited for several minutes after it became quiet before he chanced a peek, only to find Sirius happily snoozing. James popped up from behind his own bed and suppressed a snicker. Waking Sirius on a weekend was one of those tasks that should be labeled, not impossible, but highly improbable.

-

The three boys who were awake made their way down to the common room, careful not to disturb Sirius again since he still had a handy supply of objects to throw at them.

James collapsed into the armchair nearest the fire, and ignored the death glares being sent his way by Lily who still hadn't forgotten about the fake diary.

(_'Say she had a crush on him would he? Ooh, she'd get even with him for that one, oh yes. And he'd rue the day he ever annoyed Lily Evans!')_

"Shouldn't have tried waking him up so early." James laughed, more or less completely unaware of his doom being plotted no more than three armchairs away.

Remus shrugged as he and Peter dragged chairs closer to the fire. "It was worth a shot."

"Is that the _Daily Prophet_?" Peter asked curiously as he eyed the newspaper Remus still held in his hand.

James also looked at the paper, tilting his head sideways to read the title.

"Nope." Remus answered, angling the paper where the two could read it easily. "It's a Muggle paper."

James stared at the paper in Remus's hand before asking, "What on earth do you need a _Muggle_ paper for, Remmy? They hardly know what's actually going on."

Peter nodded his agreement, "My mum hasn't even seen so much as a Muggle pencil, and her sister is married to a Muggle... I think. We don't see her often."

Remus rolled his eyes, "They aren't completely ignorant you know, they know more than they're given credit for. I used to live in a small Muggle community."

Both James and Peter stared at him in undisguised shock.

"You lived with _Muggles_?" James asked, wide-eyed.

"What was it like?" Peter questioned.

"Oh. I didn't _live _with them." Remus clarified quickly. "I lived _near_ them. I lived with my mum... and my dad...." Remus looked a little downcast for a moment then brightened up. "If I remember correctly I had a neighbor who's parents were wizards. She was really nice, but she was always talking me into doing crazy stuff. Like launching a broom to the moon..."

"I'd like to meet her!" Sirius announced, rubbing his hands together gleefully as he walked down the stairs, startling everyone.

"You can't I'm afraid. I don't know where Molly is, my mum and I had to move." Remus muttered dejectedly.

"Ah, lost love!" Sirius bounded down the rest of the stairs, vaulted over an empty chair, and sat down in it.

"Shut it." Remus muttered, smacking Sirius with the large book on magical creatures he had checked out of the library. "Besides, I wouldn't want the two of you within a hundred miles of one another. The world would be doomed!"

"The pain!" Moaned Sirius, dropping to the floor in false agony. "Remus, you've killed me!"

Remus sighed in exasperation and passed the hefty volume to Peter and said, much to James's amusement, "Keep hitting him with that, will you?"

* * *

****

****

-Jade-chan


	5. Chapter 5: Newspaper clippings, return o...

**The Marauders' Years: Year One******

**Chapter Five**

**Newspaper Clippings, Return of the Purple Hamsters**

* * *

Weeks went by with nothing-spectacular happening. September turned to October and Remus fell ill again. As November rolled around the Marauders had ceased their pastime of pulling pranks and taken up the new one of trying to guess what illness Remus might have, plus the occasional snowball fight. The days of November slipped by, unbeknownst to all but one the full moon drew closer and eventually all four marauders found themselves in the great hall for breakfast.

-

Remus coughed and then choked on the piece of toast he had been idly nibbling on while he read the _Daily Prophet_.

Peter was the first to notice, and leaned sideways to look over his friend's shoulder. "What's that, Remus?"

James and Sirius immediately stopped their discussion with Frank on whether or not there were merpeople in the lake, to look questioningly at Remus.

"This." Remus breathed, as he laid the _Daily Prophet _out flat for them to read.

All five of the first year Gryffindor boys angled themselves to read the front page. The article was labeled 'Deadly Omens Seen in Sky' and there, in the normal black and white moving photograph, was a picture of someone's home and above the home an ominous skull with a snake protruding from its mouth glowed menacingly.

Peter shivered at the sight of it. "What is it?"

"The work of dark witches and wizards thought to be supporting Voldemort." Remus read aloud, ignoring the slight shiver from everyone. "Here on out to not be called by his name. You-know-who's supporters, known as 'Death Eaters' have begun leaving this mark above the houses of people whom they have murdered. Many witches and wizards that are not murdered in the attacks by you-know-who are thought to have been put under one of the unforgivable curses, the Imperius curse. Everyone is urged to be careful of who the company they keep is. Muggles are being attacked left and right, leaving the ministry officials hard pressed to keep up. Bartemus Crouch, head of Magical Law Enforcement, has given his Aurors special permission to use unforgivable curses to 'Even the score.' Many agree with this, yet still many more question Crouch's judgment."

"Unforgivable curses?" Frank whispered, as if afraid to speak it too loudly. "We're no better than them..."

"Least we aren't murdering people." Sirius interjected shakily. "It's self-defense..."

The five boys sat in silence as Remus finished scanning the _Daily Prophet _and opened up the muggle newspaper he always had delivered.

"Muggles are noticing..." He muttered.

"Where? Read it." James demanded.

"Another unexplained murder has occurred today. Miss Penny Hallowfeather, the only witness, wasn't able to give the police much to go on. All she managed to say was something about 'wooden sticks and green lights'. The police are investigating a nearby magic shop, but without much hope of discovering the culprit without further evidence." Remus read obediently.

"Magic shop?" Sirius queried, looking perplexed. "Isn't that a Muggle newspaper though?"

Remus nodded. "Their magic is just illusions and tricks, not real." 

Sirius nodded and Peter attempted to look as if he understood.

"It's as if the world is ending outside of Hogwarts..." James murmured, staring at the two newspapers.

"Seems to me." Frank said slowly. "That Hogwarts is the last really safe place."

-

Every day afterward the five boys read aloud the different events that were happening in the magical and non-magical communities, events that were getting noticeably more terrible. Other students seemed to be reading up on it as well, and most couldn't decide whether to take their family's advice and stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, or to go home for the holidays to at least be with their relatives.

Lucius Malfoy, a seventh year Slytherin who was often seen in the company of either Snape, Crabbe, or Goyle, seemed to be one of the few who wasn't alarmed by the world's events.

"My family thinks he's at least got the right idea about Muggles." Malfoy drawled loudly at lunch.

"Seems to me." James muttered fiercely, "That it's high time the Marauders struck again."

His fellow Marauders nodded, shooting acid glares at the Slytherin table.

"What should we do to him?" Sirius asked, shooting another glance at the Slytherins.

"Poison the lot." James muttered back darkly.

Remus rolled his eyes heavenward in a plea for sanity. "We can't just poison them!"

"We could still tamper with the food..." Peter suggested.

"Genius!" Sirius announced, patting Peter on the back. "C'mon."

Sirius got up from the table and hurried out of the Great Hall. The other three were in shock for a moment, Peter rarely had ideas, much less good ones.

Shrugging at one another, the other three Marauders shook themselves of their surprise and pelted after Sirius.

-

By the time they had caught up to Sirius he had already opened the portrait that concealed the hidden entrance to the kitchens. The four trooped in and were immediately waited on by a house elf.

Sensing Sirius had some sort of plan cooked up James, Remus, and Peter distracted the elves by asking for everything they could think of. Several of the house elves, however, continued to watch Sirius closely as he edged toward the Slytherin's lunch table, which had yet to be put out.

"Tamper not with the food, you mustn't, Sir!" Squeaked one house elf, looking peeved.

James rushed to Sirius's aid in coming up with a suitable cover story. "You see... Errr...?"

"Watchy." The elf squeaked helpfully, though he still looked ticked off.

"Yeah... You see, errrrr...Watchy, Malfoy who's a Slytherin. He's up there talking about how he's going to trick you lot into picking up a piece of clothing, he's doing it for fun since this is his last year at Hogwarts."

Sirius grinned at James as the house elves began muttering mutinously.

"Who's he to be doing this to us poor house elves?" Squeaked one.

"Let us help you." Sirius urged with an evil grin. "We'll take care of Malfoy.... and Snape." He finished under his breath.

Reluctantly the house elves nodded their consent and cleared out from in front of the Slytherin table.

Sirius had on his most diabolical grin as he nodded at his fellow Marauders. "Let the fun begin."

-

"Well, it looks as if those boys have finally quit pulling pranks." Alice observed coming to this conclusion from the fact that the 'four marauders', as they were now known, had indeed stopped harassing people for the past week or so.

Lizz looked up from her transfiguration homework and added sagely, "No one can stay that immature forever."

"Watch out, Lizz!" Allysia yelped as Lizz's wand made contact with the transfiguration book causing it to burst into flames.

"Oops." Lizz smiled and put out the flames. "Never liked studying anyway."

Allysia and Lily shot Lizz disapproving glances, to them schoolwork was life.

"Another thing." Lily added, jumping into the conversation. "We can't pull counterattacks very well... Our prank was..."

"Lame?" Lizz suggested.

"Exactly."

"But it was effective." Alice interjected quickly.

"Effective if you mean getting a bigger prank pulled on me!" Lily retorted.

The four of them submersed themselves in this conversation for a while, until a voice was heard behind them.

"Plotting something?" Severus Snape questioned cooly.

"Mind your own business." Alice answered tartly.

"Not to be implying that you have any of your own." Lizz added.

"Or deserve any." Lily finished.

"And a mudblood does?"

Alice immediately stood up to face Snape as Lily flushed a bright crimson.

"And to think I've told Black to lay off tormenting you." Allysia hissed angrily as she too jumped out of her seat.

"If this is standard bully procedure of picking on those weaker than you." Lizz growled, clenching one fist and grabbing her wand with the other. "Then you have made quite a mistake."

"Is there a problem?"

The five of them turned to see the Slytherin head of house striding towards them. One Professor Hikage, notorious for being ruthless and bending school rules to benefit Slytherins.

"No, sir." Snape answered. "I was just leaving." With that said, he turned on his heel and strode off toward the Slytherin table.

"Wands away." The Slytherin House Head, Professor Hikage ordered, and then added with a note of happiness. "Five points from Gryffindor."

(JN: Heh... Guess where Snape gets his 'great' teaching skills? We live what we learn sometimes.)

Alice's mouth fell open and Lizz clenched her wand tightly.

"That's unfair, sir!" Allysia said hurriedly, "He insulted Lily!"

"Keep it up and you will all receive detentions." He said coldly before turning and walking back towards the staff table with a billow of his cloak.

The four girls glared daggers at the Professor's back for a moment before turning their gaze to the original cause of distress.

After watching Severus be congratulated by Lucius and his lackeys for a moment, Allysia spoke up thoughtfully. "You know.... I think Snape might have done that just to impress Malfoy...."

Whatever conversation this would have sparked to life was unknown, for at that very moment lunch appeared.

Most of the Slytherins immediately dug in and Alice was halfway through commenting to Lily on how horrendous their table manners were when, quite suddenly, the Slytherins who had eaten something… popped.

Not exploded, but popped.

Lily wasn't quite sure how to explain what had happened, even to herself. One minute the Slytherins were there, the next minute there was a loud 'Pop!' and the chairs they had been sitting in were enveloped in purple smoke.

The four girls, along with everyone else in the Great Hall, stared in rapt silence as the smoke started to clear. After it dissipated there sat before them the most hilarious thing they had ever laid eyes upon. In the chairs of the many Slytherins sat large, purple creatures of roughly the same size as the original Slytherins.

The creatures could only be described as large purple rodents, which suspiciously appeared to be hamsters. The Slytherins lucky enough to have not pigged out from the word go, were now staring at their peers with a look of absolute horror. It wasn't long before someone coughed in what was a recognizable attempt at hiding a giggle.

That was all it took, the Great Hall erupted in laughter and several students declared that, apparently, the four marauders had struck again.

* * *

-Jade-chan


	6. Chapter 6: History of Magic, Quidditch a...

**The Marauders' Years: Year One******

**Chapter 6**

**History of Magic and Quidditch**

* * *

History of Magic class was, as usual, arguably the most boring event in the entirety of the Wizarding and Muggle worlds. The teacher, Professor Binns, was the only ghost teacher in the school.

This was the best class to do things other than pay attention, Professor Binns didn't really seem to notice that there were actually students in the room, sadly most couldn't resist the powerfully dull sound of his monotonous voice and soon succumbed to sleep.

-

Professor Binns floated through the blackboard and prepared to begin his class. James glanced at Sirius and Peter, raising an eyebrow in question. Remus hadn't shown up yet.

Sirius opened his mouth to ask or say something in response just as the door flew open with a bang. Frank, who had gotten an early start on sleep, was so startled that he fell out of his chair and muttered darkly as he got back up.

Binns glanced at Remus disdainfully as the boy shut the door then leaned against it breathing heavily.

"You are late, Mr. Errr…Ludwin."

"...Sorry..." Remus gasped. "It was Peeves, Sir, he wouldn't let me through."

The sound of Peeves cackling gleefully while chanting in a singsong voice floated into the classroom. James caught a few of the words 'Loony, loopy Lupin! Loony, loopy, Lupin!' and figured Peeves had gotten bored with their alliance.

"Should have got it in writing," Sirius whispered conspiratorially, to James.

James nodded at Sirius as Remus sat down in his usual seat next to Peter.

What followed was a long, drawn-out speech by Professor Binns on Dark Wizards of long ago, plus a small anecdote of Dumbledore's defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald. Surprisingly, this was one of the more interesting lessons, but most of the class still nodded off.

-

"There's a Quidditch match today, first one of the season!" Sirius announced, as the five boys exited the History of Magic classroom.

James blinked as this information was processed.

"I never really understood Quidditch..." Peter admitted.

"I never really cared for it." Remus added.

Needless to say, Frank, Sirius, and James were appalled.

Sirius smirked, somewhat evilly. "We'll have to fix that!"

As their dorm mates advanced on them, Remus and Peter glanced at each other in dismay.

-

Remus's head was reeling with facts about Quidditch as he climbed up to one of the high tower seats surrounding the Hogwarts' Quidditch stadium. He glanced over his shoulder at Peter who, judging from the dazed look on the slightly round boy's face, had just as much Quidditch information crammed into his skull as he did.

Remus wondered if perhaps their brains would explode if they were told another fact about the wizarding game. Remus's musings on Quidditch facts were cut short as the five boys reached their seats just as the game began.

"There's the Seeker!" James yelled over the initial cheers of the crowd. "His job is-"

"To catch the Snitch," Remus and Peter chorused dully.

James blinked at them a few times before the action of the game drew his gaze back to the Quidditch pitch.

"And they're off!" Yelled the commentator far below. "This'll be a great match! Gryffindor versus Slytherin!"

"That's Philip!" Sirius hollered to Remus and Peter over the fresh wave of cheers. "Phillip Sunter, he's the commentator!"

Remus nodded absently, this Quidditch stuff was more interesting than he'd given it credit.

"Gryffindor has the Quaffle and…oh, no! Slytherin Beaters, Hector and Dave Flint, have hit both Bludgers toward Gryffindor Keeper Mark Quoft..." The commentator cringed as the Gryffindor Keeper was pummelled by the Bludgers. "That was nasty! There goes Quoft! But Marry Hatson, Gryffindor Chaser, is almost to the Slytherin goal!"

The crowd seemed to hold their collective breath as the Gryffindor Chaser swerved to miss the Slytherin Chasers and a Bludger.

"She shoots, she……SCORES!" Philip yelled triumphantly, but was drowned out by the Gryffindors' cheers and the equally loud jeers of the Slytherins.

Marry Hatson was just getting ready to celebrate getting the first goal of the game, when all three Slytherin Chasers slammed into her in retaliation. Madam Hooch's whistle sounded as she rushed to the girl's aid.

"Boot them out of the game!" Philip cried, angrily. "Ban them from Quidditch, sack the whole Slytherin team!"

Philip quietened down a bit when Madam Hooch shot a death glare at him that could stop an angry troll dead, and soon the game had started up once again.

"Marry is outta the game due to injuries!" Philip announced. "The remaining Gryffindor Chasers will have to work extra hard, but at least they get a free shot at the goal.........and they've gotten another goal for Gryffindor!"

The game went on for about fifteen more minutes, Gryffindor scoring four more times and the Slytherins scoring only once. The remaining Gryffindor Chasers were fired up about Hatson being attacked.

Remus's gaze flickered across the field to the different players; he finally caught sight of the Gryffindor Seeker, who seemed to be going into a steep dive.

"Wish I was on the team." Sirius commented. "But there won't even be any openings till our third- the Seeker's seen the Snitch!"

James leaned forward in his seat, expectantly. "Get it!!!"

Philip spotted the Seeker as well, who had a nice head start on the Slytherin Seeker. "Johnson Blanken has spotted the Snitch! GO!!!"

Peter leaned forward over the rail in an effort to see what was happening.

"Sit back, Peter!" Remus warned seizing the back of Peter's robes and yanking him back as a Bludger barrelled past.

A sharp whistle broke through everyone's concentration, and directed his or her attention to the ground. McGonagall was holding a large magical megaphone.

"Everyone. The Quidditch match is being cancelled, I would like you all to-"

"You can't cancel it!" Mark Quoft cried, scrambling towards her, holding his stomach from where the Bludger had hit him. "We're about to win!"

"Gryffindor has the Snitch!!!" Philip let out a loud whoop of triumph as the Seeker grabbed the Snitch, his broom doing a few cartwheels before he could level it out.

"I repeat. The match has been cancelled."

Blanken almost fell off his broom at this, and Quoft nearly had a tantrum.

"You don't need to cancel it!" Quoft yelled angrily. "It's over! We won!!!"

"We'll discuss this later, Mr. Quoft. Proceed to your common room. Prefects! Keep your charges together!" McGonagall called sharply, giving Mark Quoft a withering glare.

-

"Hope they agree that Gryffindor won." James said as the five of them hurriedly walked toward the castle.

"Doubt it." Frank grumbled. "The Slytherins won't let 'em. They'll say they were distracted or some such bloody nonsense."

Nothing more was said until they reached the common room.

-

Most of the Gryffindors were milling about in the common room, and Sirius was just asking James if he was up for a game of wizards' chess when McGonagall rushed in, looking pale and drawn.

"As some of you may know," she began, straightening her lopsided hat. "Two Gryffindors have had encounters with…something. That would be Mr. Potter and Miss Blanchester."

Several Gryffindors turned to stare at Alice and James, curious as to how they tied in with the Quidditch match being cancelled.

"I'm here to announce," Professor McGonagall continued, drawing the Gryffindors' attention back to herself. "That a student was attacked by this something, this creature, during the Quidditch match."

"Who was it, Professor?" Johnson Blanken, who was still in his Quidditch robes, asked.

"Amelia Rinstone, a Ravenclaw." McGonagall answered.

Philip choked on the Butterbeer he was drinking, "Is she okay Professor?!"

McGonagall nodded curtly. "Yes, Mr. Sunter. Miss Rinstone is weak and unconscious, but alive. Luckily, she was found before the creature could do its worse. Now...I want every one of you to stay in the common room. No wandering the halls tonight. I want you all to travel in groups of five or more on your way to classes. Anyone found outside the common room before breakfast will run the danger of being expelled."

Sirius was aghast, "Why all the new rules?"

"Because, Mr. Black," McGonagall continued, looking down her square spectacles at Sirius, "Hogwarts is, at the moment, not completely safe."

* * *

-Jade-chan


	7. Chapter 7: Marauders Minus One

**The Marauders' Years: Year One******

**Chapter Seven **

**Marauders Minus One**

* * *

"Wake up, Remus." James mumbled as he dragged himself out of bed.

Almost every Gryffindor had stayed up half the night talking about the attack on the Ravenclaw girl and watching the prefects mill about. Philip tried to sneak out to see the girl, but a prefect caught him and pitched a fit over not obeying the rules.

Sirius threw a pillow at Remus's head when he didn't stir, but missed and hit Peter instead, which earned a retaliation strike.

After the pillows stopped flying, they managed to get Remus up with the help of Frank, then the first year boys headed off to Potions class, rather grumpy over missing breakfast.

-

Professor Hikage, who not only headed Slytherin house, but also taught Potions was a tall, wiry man with a bad temperament towards students and a semi-permanent scowl on his face. He didn't seem to like anyone, and only favored Slytherins slightly. The Professor usually got in an even worse mood than usual when things went wrong. He was in a rather sour mood when James and the rest of his fellow first year Gryffindors came in.

"Take your seats," Professor Hikage snapped irritably.

Not wanting to bring his wrath down upon them too quickly, everyone complied with his order. Sirius and James gave the Professor a mock salute before they seated themselves, but luckily, he didn't notice.

"We _were _going to be working in the classroom across the way," he began with his characteristic scowl firmly in place. "But I'm afraid Miss Bertha Jorkins was her usual air-headed self and Mr. Filch has not yet managed to clean up her careless mistake."

Everyone glanced at one another; dismayed that class was to be worse than usual.

"I trust," The Professor continued. "That none of you shall blow up a simple Calming Potion when you reach fifth year...If you manage to reach it, that is."

When no one answered, he scowled even more and went to start writing the ingredients for a Mesmori Draught on the blackboard.

"I'm going to fail," Peter stated quietly, in a matter-of-fact tone.

Remus rolled his eyes and shoved his ingredients towards Peter. "Use mine, I'll use yours."

"Add that one next, Peter," James warned, pointing toward the carefully measured amount of beetle eyes. "Otherwise it'll blow up."

"And that'll be a ruddy shame," Frank agreed. "Because the professor will give us all detention and not just you."

"Blow up? How?" Sirius whispered excitedly. "How do you make a little memorization potion blow up?"

"I hope that you five are discussing what a Mesmori Draught does, and not the latest Quidditch scores," Hikage said in a low dangerous voice, apparently he had crept up behind them.

James put on his most winning smile, "Funny, that was what we were discussing! It's to aid in memorization."

Professor Hikage gave them an angry glare before stalking off to berate Alice on the frothing potion her friends were trying to help her put right.

The class seemed to drag on forever until they finally had a chance to head off for a quick lunch.

-

When the five boys finally entered the Great Hall, they were starving and quickly set to the immense task of devouring as much food as humanly possible before Transfiguration started. Not one of them talked during lunch, and it passed too fast even so. Reluctantly, they all grabbed their books, and headed off for Transfiguration.

-

Transfiguration was one of Sirius's favorite subjects. Professor McGonagall, Professor M., as James had dubbed her, often used animals in her class. Sirius thought his one goal in class should be rescuing the various creatures so in preparation for this he always sat by the window.

"Today's class," McGonagall began crisply. "Is student inspired. Those of you who paid attention know that it was up to you to submit an idea for today's lesson. Many were...interesting," She glanced toward James and Sirius, who both grinned brightly. "It was a difficult decision, but I chose Miss Lily Evans's idea."

Lily blushed as the rest of the class clapped.

"Miss Evans, explain your lesson please."

Nervously, Lily made her way to the front of the room. "Umm...right. I thought maybe we could try Transfiguring magical creatures into Muggle items. It should be interesting."

The looks on the students' faces ranged from mild interest to excitement. Many of the students were from Wizarding families hadn't seen many Muggle items.

"I was thinking...maybe we could transfigure some hamsters (Sirius looked very interested at this.) into a book written by Shakespeare, it's a play called 'Hamlet'. It's rather simple to transfigure something with a similar name, but it's rather difficult if you've never even seen the book, so I brought my copy..."

It was almost like having a mini-McGonagall teaching. Lily showed everyone her own copy of the Muggle book and soon the entire class was attempting to turn the un-co-operative rodents into hardcover books with limited success due to the fact that Sirius kept using _'Accio'_ to free their hamsters, then fit them with minuscule broom sticks and toss them out of the open window. He quickly earned a detention for disrupting the class, needless to say.

Soon the class was over and everyone left with their own copy of 'Hamlet', thoroughly pleased with how the class had turned out. They had feared what kind of lesson Potter or Black would come up with.

-

"I need to go to the hospital wing..." Remus announced quite suddenly on the way to dinner.

Sirius blinked. "What for?"

"I really should have gone yesterday," Remus continued, oblivious to Sirius's question. Remus was rather pale and looked ill once again.

"You've got a rotten immune system." Peter commented, as the three boys turned to follow Remus up the stairs.

Remus ignored this as well, hurrying quickly up the stairs as if he hoped he could lose them on the way to the hospital wing. They reached their destination and, after lecturing Remus on getting there so late, Madam Pomfrey shooed them away.

Thoroughly confused and a bit intrigued the boys walked back down to enjoy dinner and head for the library.

-

Peter was rather confused about the sudden trip to the library. He was always rather confused, but he was more so now than ever. Sirius and James seemed to know what they were doing, but so far, they had forgotten to divulge their plans to him.

Peter sat at one of the tables near the back of the library, watching his two friends dart back and forth, gathering books and bringing them back to pile on the table. Not wanting to strain himself trying to make sense of their behaviour, Peter toyed with the idea of looking at Remus's notes on their classes today. He decided not to, after a bit of contemplation, he'd have better luck if he got Sirius or James to show him how to do the stuff. Besides, Remus wasn't extremely good at Potions. Then again, this seemed to only prompt him to be even more careful on taking notes. Peter was saved from further pondering by Sirius and James finally stopping their feverish book gathering.

"Maybe," Sirius said, taking up a conversation Peter didn't remember them starting, "Maybe, it's a vampire."

James shook his head. "Nah, probably a banshee."

"But it didn't look right. Banshees usually have a greenish tint to their skin and they make more noise than that thing," Sirius argued.

Peter heaved a huge sigh, by now he was used to being clueless at times, but this was ridiculous.

James paused in his discussion long enough to notice Peter's predicament. "Oh... sorry, Pete. We were trying to decide on what's attacking people."

Peter nodded. At least he knew what was going on now, sort of, although he wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea that James and Sirius had taken an interest in the whatever-it-was. Who knew how far they'd take their research? He was afraid to think on it.

* * *

-Jade-chan


	8. Chapter 8: Investigations Begin

**The Marauders' Years: Year One **

**Chapter Eight**

**Investigations Begin**

* * *

****

****

Once again, the three boys waited up for Remus. He'd been in the hospital wing since the day before yesterday and they were expecting him back. This time they weren't falling asleep in the dorm room. They were sitting in their favourite seats, right next to the fire in the common room, with a mountain of books stacked before them. The books had long since been abandoned, due to rekindled interest in their map, which they had appropriately dubbed: The Marauders' Map.

"What if we made it so that only we could read it?" Sirius asked, grabbing the map from Peter and peering at it intently.

Peter raised an eyebrow; he didn't see the point in that.

James took the map from Sirius and tapped his wand on it, muttering something. "It's simple, everyone uses charms to enchant parchment to look differently when read by someone other than themselves. Hmm…give me a password, Sirius."

"Alright, give me a second to think." Sirius ignored how Peter's face fell at the prospect of remembering another password. "How 'bout this, Jamsie?" (James cringed at the use of this name.)

Sirius hopped atop of the table they were working at, coming close to upsetting the books as he placed a hand over his heart.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

"No need to swear to that." Remus commented as he entered the common room via the portrait hole. "It's a well known fact that you're always up to no good."

"Remmy, you insult me!" Sirius cried. Luckily he chose not to insert one of his dramatic falls of fake agony, the books on the table were wobbling enough as it was.

Remus yawned and made his way to where they had situated themselves. "What are you studying for?"

"Test in Potions- you missed an important lesson." James answered, adding the last part, and the first part for that matter, to cause Remus a bit more distress.

"But…Why? So soon...You took notes? No scribbles I hope- but... Potions... " Remus floundered, stopping each sentence before it was barely begun.

Sirius snickered, "He's kidding!"

Remus shot James a glare that would have made McGonagall proud, but chose to change the subject. "What are you really looking up then?"

"That thing that was in the hall that one night." James answered. "The one that Alice and I saw, I bet it's what attacked that Ravenclaw girl too."

Remus expertly pulled a book from the middle of the stack and flipped it open.

"How do you do that?" James asked, obviously impressed.

Remus shrugged and continued studying the book in his hands.

Sirius eyed the tower of books for a few minutes before attempting to snatch one as Remus had done. He managed to get the book he was after, but that was the limit of his success**,** as the remaining volumes tumbled down onto his head.

"We should try this again tomorrow night." Remus suggested, as he skimmed through the book.

Peter tilted his head to read the title. "One Thousand Dark Creatures: TheComplete Guide To Locating and Identifying - That looks a little long to read at this time of night, or under any circumstances."

"Even the...." James yawned, "Title is boring. We can look at this stuff tomorrow."

The other two boys agreed. Ignoring Sirius's plight, the three walked towards the stairs.

After a few moments, Sirius managed to get out from under the books and after seeing that his friends had headed up to the dorm without him, walked over to the couch and sprawled out on it. Let them leave him under a pile of books! Just for that, he wouldn't reveal the secret of the common room couches being noticeably more comfortable than those four-poster beds!

For a few minutes he laid there motionless, then he grumpily got to his feet, reached under the cushion, and pulled out a large Arithmancy book. Sirius tossed the book back onto the couch, and proceeded to walk up the stairs to the first-year boys' dorm. Maybe the couches weren't as comfortable as he had first thought…

He paused, then rushed back down the stairs and replaced the textbook back underneath the cushion. He grinned widely and once again headed for his dorm. Maybe he would share that 'secret' with them after all. Maybe he could charm their beds to disappear, leaving them with no choice, but to sleep on the couches.

And so Sirius Black went to bed in his own four-poster, the wheels in his mind already churning out another master plan.

-

Sirius's evil plans were put aside the next afternoon. It was the weekend- Remus was frantically trying to catch up the work he hadn't gotten done, James was trying to teach Peter how to play Wizard's chess and Sirius was on his way to detention with McGonagall.

Sirius had forgotten about the detention he had earned in Transfiguration over a month ago, but it seemed, unfortunately, that McGonagall had a longer memory span than he. When McGonagall had come around taking names of those staying for the holidays (as it was the first week of December)**,** she had reminded him to be in her office at 3 P.M**,** sharp.

-

Sirius grumbled under his breath as he peered underneath the eighth wardrobe. His punishment had been to find all of the hamsters that he'd set free. Apparently they had found their way back into the castle and had proceeded to chew on anything and everything they could get their tiny paws on. Sirius spotted a small furry ball and quickly reached under the wardrobe to grab one of the last hamsters. A few moments later he let out a yelp**,** as the irritated rodent chomped down on his finger.

Angrily, he shook it off into the box he was placing the hamsters he had found in. He quickly decided that all hamsters were evil, well, except the purple ones, perhaps. Frowning**,** as he guessed at how long he had been hamster hunting, Sirius stood up with the hamster box held tightly to prevent the furry rodents' escape and headed back for McGonagall's office. When he got there, he found that she had already gone.

-

Everyone in the Gryffindor common room was talking excitedly- McGonagall had just been in to announce that a prefect had spotted something suspicious down near the dungeons, and that no one was to leave the common room**, **_orelse**, **_she had warned, her eyes glinting dangerously at certain people.

"Where _is _Sirius at a time like this?" Remus asked, glancing around the crowded common room.

The reward for asking such a foolish question was Sirius suddenly leaping off the couch with a battle cry, and pouncing on the unsuspecting Remus Lupin. There were several mutters of 'suicidal first years' by the older Gryffindors as James and Peter helped their fellow Marauders off of the floor.

"What'd I miss while I was suffering in the evil clutches of McGonagall?" Sirius asked, as he brushed his robes off.

"The…whatever-it-is was spotted by a couple of Hufflepuff prefects," James answered promptly.

Sirius raised an eyebrow in silent question.

"Yes," Remus sighed, shaking his head in pity. "They ran as if the sky were falling."

"Probably did think it was falling," Peter mused aloud. He then stared questioningly at the box Sirius still held tightly. "What's that?"

Sirius didn't reply, but an evil look spread across his face.

"What's up?" James asked.

"What're the chances of us winning the House Cup?" Sirius asked, looking unusually gleeful. He was getting several reproving glares from a group of sixth years.

"Slim to none," Remus supplied. "Thanks, in part, to us."

"The shame is a great thing to bear, but the temptation was just too much!"

"That was beautiful, James," Remus said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Sirius, does your conversation topic have a point?"

Sirius nodded, motioning for the others to move closer. They of course complied, for when Sirius thought up something of this nature, it was not wise to discuss it within the earshot of others. It would either spoil the plotting or convince the listener to commit Sirius to St. Mungos. "What if..."

"What if what?" Peter queried tremulously, already suspecting something bad.

"What if we caught that thing?" Sirius continued. "House points for sure, maybe one of the special awards?"

James looked mortified. "Definitely no special awards! Do you know how many of those things I had to scrub last week in detention?"

"We do," Remus assured him. "All of us were in there scrubbing them along with you."

Sirius heedlessly waved the protests off. "Well? Yes or no?"

"Yes," James agreed, grinning.

"Might as well..." Remus answered, knowing that in this situation, it was far easier to follow Sirius and James and to keep an eye on them, rather than to think up reasons not to.

"Umm...."

"All are in favor then!" Sirius announced, taking the 'Umm....' of Peter's, as a 'Yes'.

-

"We have to be doing this for a nobler cause though," Remus suggested suddenly, as they edged toward the portrait hole, trying to avoid the watchful eyes of the prefects.

"We are!" James said. "We're saving the school, the House Points are just the perk of the job!"

"Jamesie is right, our cause is quite noble, Remmy!" Sirius added.

"Noble? Doubt it. Get away from there, you four." Demanded a sixth year prefect that the Marauders' recognized as Julian Sunter, Philip's sister. The four boys grudgingly obeyed. Julian was rather obsessive over her prefect duties, and it wouldn't be prudent to try and get past her again...especially since she was now, literally, sitting in front of the portrait.

-

"Our hopes dashed!" Sirius cried, in his usual, overly dramatic fashion.

Remus and Peter nodded glumly in agreement. James, however, seemed to be thinking deeply on something.

"Maybe not completely dashed," said James slowly.

* * *

-Jade-chan


	9. Chapter 9: Christmas Breaks' Coming

**The Marauders' Years: Year One **

**Chapter Nine**

**Christmas Break's Coming**

* * *

Three fourths of the Marauders stared at the remaining member of their group.

"Do you have a plot, perhaps?" Sirius asked, obviously interested.

James gave a short nod, "I've got a plot - an idea, really - it's up in the dorm." He motioned for them to follow and hurried upstairs; Sirius, Remus, and Peter hot on his heels.

-

"So, what's this idea?" Remus asked curiously, as he sat down on James's bed.

James made no answer as he opened his trunk and began digging through it.

After a few minutes of James throwing books over his shoulder he finally stopped the attack on his possessions. "Here it is..."

Peter, who had made the mistake of not sitting down, nearly fell over as James pulled a silvery cloak from the very bottom of his trunk. "Th-That's an....."

"Invisibility cloak..." Remus finished, staring at it in stunned disbelief.

"We can get out with that! We can do _anything_ with that!" Sirius yelled, overjoyed. He paused in his happy tirade, "But Jamsie, why didn't you tell me about it. I'm hurt that you would hide such a helpful prank aid all year!"

James rolled his eyes at this. Sirius was never 'hurt', at least not to the extent that he always tried to make you believe.

"It doesn't matter. On with the plotting!"

Sirius blinked a few times, wondering if it were some sort of spasm...everyone's eyes seemed to roll up into their head when he spoke. Leaving these insane thoughts behind, Sirius rubbed his hands together in characteristic glee at the prospect of plotting something.

"Agreed!"

The four discussed the options of how to get out of the common room unnoticed. Even if they were invisible, James reminded, they were still quite solid. They batted back and forth several ideas, the least of them not being lighting a chair on fire, or covering the entire common room in a sticky Muggle substance, enticingly called, 'Super Glue', (this was Sirius's favorite idea, of course), before deciding on a few Fillibuster Fireworks with Dungbombs attached. Peter was reluctant on facing Julian again, but he was quickly overruled and the plan was complete.

-

"Ouch...that was my toe!"

Lily spun around to stare at the empty space behind her. Didn't someone just say something? She stared at the spot for a few minutes before turning back to her friends.

"Did any of you hear that?"

Alice and Allysia shook their heads. "No."

"Hear what?" Lizz questioned, with one eyebrow raised.

Lily shook her head and dismissed it. "Nothing."

-

The four Marauders let out the breath they had been holding, and Peter received a glare from the other three. They shuffled along a little farther until they were in the middle of the room, it was less crowded over there and didn't run constant risk of running into someone.

As silently as they possibly could, James and Remus pulled the fireworks and Dungbombs out of their pockets.

"On three..." James whispered, pulling his wand out to light them.

"Right," Remus replied, doing the same.

"One..." James muttered. "Two..."

"THREE!" Sirius yelled, jubilantly throwing open the box he had been carrying since he had arrived back from detention. Hamsters, magically charmed purple, spilled out onto the floor and scurried quickly for cover. The cover they chose ranged from under the couch, to up people's cloaks, which caused quite a bit of distress to the girls who were mortally afraid of mice.

James and Remus quickly set off their fireworks to add to the confusion. As the fireworks whizzed overhead; the Dungbombs, set alight from the sparks, were promptly slung everywhere.

Exactly what the Marauders planned, happened- complete and utter mayhem. Not one person noticed when the portrait hole quietly opened, and then swung back shut.

-

It was a rather awkward task for the four boys to shuffle down the corridors and stay under the invisibility cloak at the same time, but somehow they managed it.

They inched past Peeves, who was hanging upside-down in midair whilst haphazardly setting it up, so that several suits of armor would fall over onto the next unfortunate passerby.

"Let's listen in on the teachers," Sirius whispered excitedly, and pointed toward where Professor Sprout had just disappeared into the teachers' lounge.

"Well..." James shoved his glasses back on; they had been knocked askew when Sirius had pointed.

Remus hissing in his ear interrupted James, "Resist all temptation! We're lucky we haven't been caught so far. We don't need to walk into the middle of a teachers' meeting!"

"It won't hurt, we'll just listen at the door," Sirius coaxed.

"Or, we could just go back to Gryffindor tower and play exploding snap..." Peter suggested, looking hopeful, but at the same time, resigned to his fate- there was no chance the others would ever agree in a million years.

"Just a quick listen," James announced finally. "Sirius is right, it won't hurt anything."

With that decided, the four Marauders crept up to the door and strained to hear the conversation inside.

-

"Honestly!" Professor McGonagall's stifled voice drifted, in snatches, through the door, "There's nothing to be done till the students leave for Christmas holidays tomorrow."

"You have a fine point, Minerva," answered Dumbledore's voice, "There will be no more talk of closing the school, until it has been decided just how serious this is, and that can not be done until most of the students are away for us to search the castle thoroughly."

The four boys shuffled away quickly as the teachers exited the office. As soon as Professor Hikage's dark cloak swished around the corner and out of sight, they began a hurriedly whispered conversation.

"What's he mean, 'close the school'?" Sirius asked, horrorstruck.

"They won't close it, they can't close it!" Peter insisted, in a strangely high voice. "My mum would be so upset, after all that time of fretting whether I would get in or not!"

Remus merely shook his head, muttering something repeatedly under his breath, which sounded like, "I told mum it was too good to be true..."

"We'll just have to go on towards the dungeons," James announced, beckoning the others to keep together, lest the invisibility cloak should slip off.

They continued on their way a while farther, the air getting colder as they traveled deeper into the dungeons with each step.

Not a word was said when Remus jumped at the sound of a mouse scampering past. Nor when Peter sneezed and scared them all. They kept steadily going forward till they were sure they were well out of harms way, at least where detentions were concerned, and only then did James whip off his invisibility cloak to allow them a bit more freedom of movement.

After this, they continued walking down into the dungeons without speaking.

Peter was contemplating making a run for it, why on earth had he agreed to come?

Remus was pondering along a similar line, but he was trying to decide on the best argument on why they should all go back.

James felt as if he were about to scream if it got any quieter, when Sirius suddenly dealt with the tense situation as he always dealt with such predicaments: By becoming louder and more obnoxious than usual.

Everyone stared at him as he began to sing one of the more popular songs of wizard radio, at the top of his lungs, and purposefully off key.

_"Endlessly Confunded by yooooou….."_

"Will you shut up?" James yelled, covering his ears in an attempt to help his eardrums remain in tact.

Sirius merely increased the volume of his 'singing'.

"Make it stop..." Pleaded Peter, taking refuge behind James.

"I swear I'll owl your mum and dad if you don't shut up!" Remus yelled, in a similar position of covering his ears like James.

Immediately, Sirius stopped singing, looking rather puzzled, "What'd you do?"

Remus stared at Sirius, incomprehension evident on his face, "What?"

They were all staring at Sirius now, for it seemed Remus's threats weren't what caused him to quit badgering their eardrums.

Sirius blinked and glanced around, shivering, "Why'd the temperature drop?"

"I don't know," Remus answered sarcastically "Could it be we're under the castle, maybe?"

It took a moment, but soon the other three boys realized what Sirius was talking about. It wasn't as if the temperature had dropped more than it already had, it was more like the cold chill you get when you feel something bad is about to happen. The first stinging instinct of fear as it tiptoes up your spine, the fine hair on your arms standing to attention.

"What's going on?" Peter questioned fearfully. As the feeling of impending doom became more prominent, he backed away towards where they had come, more and more quickly.

James shook his head, unable to come up with an answer for his friend.

"Anyone know any good spells?" Sirius asked, in an attempt at a lighthearted tone.

Mouthing wordlessly, Remus pointed down the corridor, where a small girl had appeared from the shadows. She had on a wide brimmed hat and a frilly dress, nothing in her appearance was remotely menacing.

"Run..." Remus muttered, staring at the small girl.

"What...why?" James turned to stare at Remus, as the pale boy's eyes widened in fear.

"Doesn't matter what something looks like..." Remus trailed off, the girl was slowly lifting her head, and eyes that were once hidden, were coming into view, revealed to be glowing an unearthly red.

* * *

- Jade-chan


	10. Chapter 10: One Word Run

**The Marauders' Years: Year One **

**Chapter Ten**

** One word: Run**

* * *

****

Peter didn't need telling twice, he didn't even need telling once. Even before Remus had muttered his warning, Peter had turned on his heel and taken off up the corridor, heading for the teachers' lounge, and praying that a few teachers had stuck around.

"Run!" Remus wasn't giving muttered advice anymore, now he was shouting, trying to knock his friends out of the trance of fear that seemed to have taken hold. The loud shout from the normally quiet boy was enough to snap both James and Sirius back to reality.

Remus had already turned around, and made a mad dash to catch up with Peter.

James and Sirius followed his example, only looking back long enough to see the little 'girl' transform silently into some four-legged monstrosity, with horrible red eyes and large, hideous, slavering jaws filled with jagged teeth. It was all the incentive the two boys needed, to run faster than they had ever ran before.

"This way!" James gasped, taking a quick left behind a statue of an old wizard mixing a potion. Sirius hastily followed. James had to admit that he had never felt more scared in his life, with the sounds of his and Sirius's shoes pounding the stone floor, accompanied by the fearful noise of the creature behind them. James couldn't have been happier when the passageway emptied out, right into the hallway Remus was running down.

The three boys didn't even acknowledge each other's existence as they raced for the door to the teachers' lounge.

Thirty seconds seemed to stretch for hours, as the creature gained on them, but in a flash they saw Peter reach the door and tug it open, then they were to it and frantically rushing inside and slamming the door shut, before leaning against it, panting heavily.

"What are you four doing up at this time of night?!" McGonagall asked sternly.

Peter attempted to say, but couldn't seem to form the much-needed words. Finally, he seemed to catch his breath a little. "I'sa'monster," He gasped, "Trytaeatme."

"Speak a little more clearly, Mr. Pettigrew," she said, clearly irritated and not amused.

"A monster, it tried to kill us!" Peter shouted, pointing towards the door.

A sudden, loud thump of something slamming against the door caused Peter to dive for cover behind McGonagall. James, Sirius, and Remus stared in alarm from their position on the floor as the doorknob turned.

With one last shove, Professor Hikage stormed into the lounge, glaring daggers at James, Sirius and Remus who had been knocked forward onto the floor by his throwing the door open. "Potter...Lupin...Black...what are you three doing here?"

"They have been attacked," McGonagall supplied, "I shall go to alert the Headmaster. We must search for it immediately!"

Filch peered into the lounge from behind Hikage, "What d'yeh wan' me ter do, Professor?"

"Take these boys back to their common room," McGonagall answered.

The Marauders frowned in dismay. Déjà vu… It seemed Filch was always the one dragging them back to the common room.

-

The school was searched immediately, but yet again the elusive creature escaped capture.

The next morning there was a flurry of packing as Hogwarts students prepared to go home for Christmas. Up in the dorm of the Marauders, plus Frank, there was chaos.

"Where's my toothbrush???" Peter yelled from the bathroom, "It's gone!"

"Ask Allysia, I think I saw her cat up here again last night," Remus suggested, the cat was notoriously known for it's liking of odds and ends and it's subsequent stealings of them.

"My chocolate frogs are all missing, where are they?" Frank questioned furiously, as he dug through the items in his trunk.

"Sirius, Peter, and James ate them on Halloween while you were down at the feast."

Frank scowled and went back to packing.

"Where's my Transfiguration homework?" James asked, as he searched the room.

"Under Sirius's bed. Lost forever I'm afraid."

This went on for several minutes until everyone, with the exception of Sirius, was packed.

Noticing this, James managed to be the first to comment, "Did you lose _all_ of your stuff?"

Sirius shook his head, "Nope…I'm staying at Hogwarts for Christmas."

The other boys stared at him as if he had just grown an extra head that had happily proclaimed that Slytherin was the best house ever.

Shifting uncomfortably under the stares, Sirius opted to explain a bit more, "I don't feel like going home for Christmas, so I'm going to stay here instead."

"But don't you want to go home to see your mum and dad?" Peter asked, gaping at him.

"Not really..."

"What about Christmas! You'll be here by yourself!" James protested.

"Don't really care, I'm not going home."

"Be reasonable, I'm sure your parents have gotten over whatever diabolical prank you might have pulled on them," Remus said, but was greeted by yet another flat answer.

"I'm staying here."

Sighing in defeat, the first year boys dragged their trunks down the changing staircases and into the entrance hall.

"We'll all search our libraries for anything on that…thing," James promised, as he headed down the steps and out into the chilly December air.

"I'll try to find it too," Peter announced. The others looked at him skeptically. They all knew he would rather run and hide, than become actively involved in pursuing it.

"I've got a rather large library at my house," Remus said. "I'll have a look too, and we'll all write letters, right?"

All of the boys nodded, even Frank.

"See you later then, Black!" Frank called over his shoulder. The four trooped out onto the frostbitten grounds, calling out hurried goodbyes.

-

Sirius occupied himself well during the month he was on his own. Since no one he knew in Gryffindor had stayed over the holiday, Sirius spent his time out on the grounds, relentlessly tormenting three Hufflepuff girls and Severus Snape. For the first week, there wasn't any snow, and after wishing and wishing for the frigid white stuff, Sirius opted to help the weather out a bit.

What resulted was an accidental blizzard and Sirius having to attend detention for the next two weeks.

-

It was finally Christmas, and Sirius was in the common room yawning, his misadventures had finally gotten boring when they forbade him to go within fifty feet of Snape. He stared blankly at the fireplace for a while, before a tap on the window broke him out of his zombie-like state.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Sirius muttered, as the medium-sized grey owl tapped again, more loudly than before. Once he had crossed the small distance to the window, he threw it open, and was instantly grateful for his thick sweater, as itchy as it was, as an icy blast of wind blew in along with the owl.

Sirius took the letter off the owl's leg and it hooted happily and settled down, apparently waiting for his return letter.

Sirius opened it, and proceeded to read Remus's tidy lettering.

-

**_Sirius_,**

**Hope you're having a good time. I heard about the blizzard, it was in the 'Daily Prophet', congratulations- your pranks are getting so bad, that you'll soon earn that title you seem so eager to acquire- 'Danger to Society' (and a quick admission to St. Mungo's while you're at it.) Anyway, I searched about every book we have in the library, (honestly, I only stopped to eat and sleep.) I haven't had any luck, but from the few similar descriptions I have to warn you, DO NOT GO LOOKING FOR IT ALONE! No worries, we'll all be back soon to keep you out of trouble. Merlin knows you need looking after.**

**Sincerely,**

**Remus P.S. STAY OUT OF TROUBLE!**

**-**

Sirius frowned at the letter, before addressing the owl, "It's as if they don't trust me!"

The owl hooted in a somewhat sympathetic fashion and began to hop impatiently back and forth, strangely eager to venture outside again.

Shrugging it all off**,** Sirius quickly scribbled a reply on the back.

-

**_Remmy, _**

**_Don't you trust me? The blizzard was just a huge misunderstanding! Honest!_ _They really exaggerated_ _how much snow fell. Only three people got lost, and they found them five hours later!_ _Only slight frostbite! _**

****

**_Plotting to overthrow the Ministry of Magic,_**

**_Sirius Black, Lord of the Purple Hamsters_**

****

**_-_**

Happy with how his letter looked, Sirius tied it to the owl's leg, walked over to the window, and tossed it out into the wind.

* * *

- Jade-chan


	11. Chapter 11: Letters For Black

**The Marauders' Years: Year One **

**Chapter Eleven**

**Letters for Black**

**

* * *

**

****

**Sirius,**

**I wrote to Remus and Peter to ask if they found out anything on that monster we saw, but I haven't gotten a reply yet. Oh…wait… there's Remus's owl.**

**Hmm, nope. Remus didn't find anything either. He got your letter back, what's this about overthrowing the Ministry? Why didn't you include me in your plot? Shame!!!**

**See you in a week! Wait till you see what I got for Christmas! Oh, and Remus said he forgot to tell you Happy Christmas. So, there- a happy and merry Christmas to you!**

**Happy Christmas!**

**James Potter**

**P.S. My dear idiotic and mentally challenged friend. Have you yet realized that on Christmas, the Christmas presents arrive?**

_-_

Sirius blinked at the last line of the letter**,** as the large horned owl James owned**,** waited silently, blinking superiorly down at him. He...Had...Forgotten...About...PRESENTS!

Sirius rushed up to the dorm, where he noticed for the first time**,** the pile of colorful packages at the foot of his bed.__

His eyes glittering with excitement**,** Sirius tore into the first unsuspecting parcel, then the next, and then the next**, **his grin growing larger as the wrappings were tossed aside.****

James's parents had sent him a small gift package from a joke shop in Diagon Alley; apparently they didn't realize that was like giving a bomb to a deranged Muggle.

Remus's mum had sent him a plate of homemade Christmas cookies_. _(Which she mentioned Remus had helped cook.)Sirius snickered**;** he now had a bit more blackmail against his friend.

Peter's mom had also sent cookies, which made Sirius's mouth water as he deeply inhaled their tempting, home-baked smell. Resisting temptation, he put them away for later.

Finally he finished opening packages**,** till only one was left. He grimaced as he tore open the small green envelope attached, which bore the Black Family seal- a lion being throttled by a serpent.

-

**_Sirius,_**

****

**_I hope this book will prove useful. Your brother was thrilled with his copy. You had better be doing the Black family name justice in Slytherin._**

**-**

"Better be doing the family name justice**,**" Sirius repeated, imitating his mother's voice. He couldn't wait to see her face whenhe got around to telling her that he'd been sorted into Gryffindor. Thankfully**,** she didn't know yet, so no Howlers, but it had been quite a task,blackmailing all of his cousins to keep quiet.

Sirius smirked, he always found the term 'black'mail amusing. Bellatrix had been most displeased with the pictures of her at five years old...playing with a doll. He thought she would curse him right then and there.

He stared thoughtfully at the book for a moment, and then pondered how chilly it was getting**;** the fireplace was a little low on fuel...

-

Sirius enjoyed dinner in the Great Hall that night**;** it was splendidlydecorated with red and green tinseland the usual impossibly large Christmas trees.

Everyone had been inclined to sit at one table with the teachers**,** since there were so few student**s **there that each house table would have had only one to three students sitting at it.

Sirius had amused himself for most of the evening**,** by staring, in feigned eagerness**,**every time McGonagall started to drink from her goblet. Halfway through Christmasdinner**,** she had disposed of the goblet's contents with a wave of her wand and had it refilled.

Teachers could be so paranoid.

The one he'd really poisoned**,** would be the Potions teacher, McGonagall should have known that. Sadly, Professor Hikage seemed to be used to attempts to put things in his drink**,** and after he had sniffed it, promptly disposed of it in a similar fashion as McGonagall.

All in all the evening had been fun, with crackers and everything else imaginable. It had also been amusing to see Snape, (orSnivellus**,** as Sirius had now dubbed him**,** due to a cold Snape had caught**,** thanks to Sirius's blizzard), attempt to keep as far away from him as possible.

Entirely too soon**,** it was time for bed, and all of the students made to go their separate ways.

-

Upon arrivingin the common room**,** Sirius was greeted by Peter's family's owl, which looked quite peeved at being outside in the wind.

-

**_Sirius,_**

****

**_Had a good Christmas? No luck in our library, but we don't have many books. Sorry. Not much to say, can't wait to get back to Hogwarts. Hope you're looking in the school library; it's not fair if you don't have to do any work. By the way...Maybe we can call the entire thing off? Isn't there another way to get house points? Any other???_**

****

**_-Peter_**__

_-_

As Sirius scribbled a reply**,** he pondered a quick jaunt to the kitchens. It was rather risky;you never knew where the teachers were likely to turn up.... Siriuspaused, mid thought_, _he'd just had a brilliant idea! Wouldn't it be useful if you did know where the teachers were?

With this thought utmost in his mind, Sirius raced upstairs and retrievedthe Marauder's Map, before hurrying back downstairs and out ofthe portrait hole. He had a week to fulfillhis mission; he had to get to the library immediately to get it done.__

_-_

As the Hogwarts express slowed to a stop**,** James Potter waited impatiently to get off. His other three friends, Remus, Peter, and Frank were waiting behind him. The scarlet train gave a slight jerk as it finally halted, and James immediately jumped off into the near two-foot deep snow drifts.

Remus unloaded next, and as he stood uplooking around and brushing the snow off his robes, he commented, "Looks as if Sirius's harmless little blizzard stretched all the way to the train station. No wonder it was in the _Daily Prophet_."

Frank shook his head wordlessly, as he jumped down next to Remus; they all knew that he thought Sirius was an insane threat to their sanity, even their lives.

Peter leapt off last.

"Why don't we attempt to sneak up on Sirius?" James asked, as they started the long, difficult trek to Hogwarts.

Remus and Peter nodded, but both were more interested in avoiding dropping down into the deeper drifts.

"Mental..." Frank muttered, obviously referring to Sirius, as he glared at the snow.

The walk to Hogwarts wasn't exactly a wonderful experience. Frank had made several more remarks about Sirius, and Remus had noticed the change in Frank's attitude toward their fifth dorm mate quite suddenly. It was true enough that Frank hadn't exactly been chummy with Sirius or James, but Frank was acting a bit more hostile towards Sirius than before. It was slightly unnerving how much could change over Christmas holidays. James quickly jumped to defend his friend, as Frank made another scathing remark.

The good thing about the walk to Hogwarts was that, after the first argument, there was only one uncomfortable silence, the bad thing was that the silence lasted the entire distance to Hogwarts.

As soon as they were through the door, the four boys parted company, Frank heading off toward Gryffindor tower and the Marauders wandering off in search of their friend, anxious to find out what he had done to entertain himself.

-

Sirius smirked dubiously to himself as he walked down the corridors toward the entrance hall and kept one eye on the piece of parchment held in his hand. Before he had quite reached his destination, he turned abruptly to the right and stood in the shadows, studying the parchment. After a moment of silence, he left his place in the dark and walked hurriedly into the entrance hall and toward the grand staircase. He had to hurry if he wanted to catch James and the others, and if he was right they were just about on the fourth floor. Sirius cast a quick glance at the parchment and once satisfied with his findings, sprinted up the stairs.

* * *

- Jade-chan


	12. Chapter 12: The Map

**The Marauders' Years: Year One******

**Chapter Twelve **

**The Map**

* * *

James, Remus, and Peter were quite surprised when Sirius caught up with them during their search of the fourth floor corridor. It wasn'tone of their usual haunts**,** nor a place they passed through often.

In fact,Sirius had declared that he didn't like that particular floor. The others had been quick to ask him why, and he had replied by saying that**,** 'There has to be a part of the castle I don't like, andthere doesn't have to be a reason why.'

None of them, except maybe Sirius, could see the logic of this statement**,** so it was chalked up as more of his seeminglymindless ramblings. __

All that taken into account, they were quite curious to know how Sirius had found them there.

James, Remus, and Peter waited expectantly for enlightenmentthat was rather quick in coming**;** Sirius handed over the Marauders' Map**,** whilst grinning widely**,** and began his explanation.

"I was bored."

His rather short explanation.

Remus stared at the piece of parchment for several minutes. "How bored could you have gotten?"

"What'd he do?" Peter asked, peering with interest at the parchment. He was greeted by a few new additions to their sketching**,** plus six red dots**, **each labeled in minute writing.

"Wasn't quite sure how to make it recognizeanyone and everyone**,**" Sirius explained**,** whilst pointing to one of the red dots that was labeled**,** 'Peter Pettigrew'. "I couldn't find anything on it in the library."

James raised an eyebrow at the other five dots**,** each with it's own label. Four of the dots which were labeled:Peter Pettigrew, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin, were gathered in the middle of the fourth floor corridor; one of the dots, labeled Mrs. Norris, was disappearing off the edge of the current extent of the map and into the far end of the second floor corridor. The final dot was nowhere to be found."Who else did you put on here, exactly?"

"Just the locations of Mrs. Norris, Filch, and the four of us**,**" Sirius answered, and then continued**,** "it'd be even better if it would just _know_ who and where anyone was, instead of just knowing where the six of us are. We need to finish drawing up the rest of Hogwarts too."

"This is going to take the better part of _all_ our years at school," Remus said with a sigh.

"That's the fun of it!" Sirius grinned rather maniacally.

Peter just shook his head; he'd never understand Sirius's line of reasoning. How could even more work be considered fun?

-

The first week of January was a whirlwind of activity as the students returned to flood the castle. Remus consulted Hogwarts' extensive library and seemed determined to find out more about the creature. He hadn't told anyone anything about whatever it was he had found out; all he had said on the subject was the short warning he had given to Sirius in his letter.

As soon as lessons started back up, everything, including the Marauders' Map and research, was left for later.

-

"Herbology. I can't stand Herbology," Peter muttered as the four of them walked across the grounds toward the Herbology greenhouses.

"I'd think it would be your favorite subject," James said, drawing his conclusion from the fact that Peter didn't do extremely well in subjects where a wand was required.__

"He's talking about the plants, Peter doesn't like vegetables that can eat you in revenge for what you ate during dinner."

Remus rolled his eyes at this comment; Sirius always had to put in his two cents no matter how insane his suggestions were. This action happened to send Sirius's mind once again down the trail of wondering why people rolled their eyes when he was talking.

-

"Welcome back, class," Professor Sprout said as the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw first years filed into the green house. "Please shut the door quickly, you're letting a draught in. My poor honking daffodils were crushed during a snowball fight before Christmas break and I'm afraid too much cold air will finish them off."

Professor Sprout directed them to all to look at two potted plants that were situated in the center of the tables they usually worked at. "Can any of you tell me the names of these plants?"

Sirius and James immediately raised Remus's hand, much to his displeasure, right before a Ravenclaw girl's hand shot into the air.

"Devil's snare...or is it Flitterbloom?" Remus paused, staring hard at the two plants in an attempt to identify them.

"Right on both counts, Mr. Lupin, impressive that you knew that much...I think ten points for Gryffindor will do," Professor Sprout said with a smile, and then busied herself with explaining the lesson. "This one on the left is Devil's Snare and the one on the right is a harmless Flitterbloom."

She pointed to each in turn. Sirius edged closer, trying to see the difference in what appeared to be identical plants.

"Best stay back, Mr. Black. That Devil's Snare is only a cutting, but it will still be rather difficult to get it off you," the Professor warned forebodingly. Sirius immediately jerked back.

"Does anyone know how to tell the difference between them? No? Well, there isn't much of a difference between them, except for one being dangerous and the other being harmless. One of the easiest ways to tell is this..." Professor Sprout picked up a normal tree branch from the table and prodded the Flitterbloom with no reaction, then the Devil's Snare, which immediately wrapped its green feelers around the stick. "Not very professional, I'll grant you, but it gets the job done."

-

For the rest of the lesson, the class studied various other ways to identify both plants, and then moved on to taking care of Flitterblooms. By the end of class everyone had at least a basic knowledge on keeping the plants alive, and as a surprise Professor Sprout gave each of them a Flitterbloom to keep alive for homework.

-

James raised an eyebrow, as Sirius sat his new Flitterbloom onto the table the next morning during breakfast. "What are you putting that there for...?"

"His name is..." Sirius trailed off, a thoughtful expression on his face. The other three Marauders along with most of the younger Gryffindors at the table waited to see what Sirius was rambling on about today. "His name is Bob."

"And who, though I may regret asking, is Bob?"

Sirius stared at Remus as if he had asked a rather stupid question and immediately pointed to his Flitterbloom. "He is Bob."

"You named your homework?" Peter asked, cautiously prodding the plant with his fork. If there was ever a wizard to switch his harmless Flitterbloom for a Devil's Snare, Sirius was he.

Sirius nodded. "Of course! He needed a name, and that name is Bob."

"You realize that err...Bob, is a plant and not an animal or person?" James queried, fervently hoping that Sirius did in fact realize this, and thus wouldn't need to see Madam Pomfrey to sort out his addled brains.

Sirius's answer was halted as the main morning event started up; hundreds of owls were swooping into the Great Hall to deliver mail to the students.

"Someone has gotten a howler," Alice announced, as a horned owl with a red envelope clamped in its beak headed for the Gryffindor table.

"What's a howler?" Lily asked, a confused look on her face.

"Really nasty thing to get, Evans," James informed her with a smirk. "Maybe you'll get one sometime? We can only hope…" This teasingly sarcastic comment resulted in Lily's porridge bowl ending up on James's head, and a triumphant glare from the redhead.

"James!" Sirius muttered frantically.

"What?" James asked distractedly, he was trying to shake the porridge off of his glasses.

"That's my family's owl!" Sirius said, staring at the owl as it flew straight towards them, hooting menacingly.

* * *

- Jade-chan


	13. Chapter 13: The Howler

**The Marauders' Years: Year One******

**Chapter Thirteen **

**The Howler**

* * *

****

Peter and Remus took interest in the conversation at this point and both watched the owl as it soared over Sirius's head, dropping the brightly colored letter into his cereal.

"Why would they send you a Howler?" Peter asked, staring at the letter as one would stare at a potion that was about to explode.

Sirius didn't say a thing; he was too busy wracking his brain for a suitable answer to this new dilemma.

"They aren't mad at you for not visiting during the holidays, are they?" James pressed, determined to get Sirius to start talking again.

"Best open it," Remus warned, pointing at the red envelope, it was beginning to smoke as all Howlers do if ignored for too long.

Sirius was well aware that it would just yell louder if he didn't open it, but that still left the problem with keeping it from broadcasting whatever was upsetting his mother.

Should he try pouring a jug of pumpkin juice on it? Or maybe eating the letter? No…he couldn't eat it, Howlers burst into flames after all, imagine if it did that in his mouth? Sirius quickly shook away the mental image that thought induced, and glanced around the Great Hall, maybe by some miracle, help would arrive and he would be spared.

Help did not arrive in time, or, after time.

Before Sirius could come up with a new plan of action, the seal on the letter flew off rather forcefully, and his mothers voice filled the entirety of the Great Hall, magnified no less than a normal Howler, yet it seemed her screeches of anger were at least triple the normal decibel level. Things on the table rattled with the noise, and Sirius could have sworn he saw a glass shatter, but all further distractions were banished from his mind as his brain started to register what was being said... or rather, what was being screamed.

_"SIRIUS ORION BLACK! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! HOW DARE YOU GET SORTED INTO GRYFFINDOR! THE DAILY PROPHET TURNS UP WHEN I DIDN'T EVEN ORDER IT-"_

James stared first at the Howler and then at Sirius; the other boy's face was turning red, though James couldn't tell if it was from anger or pure embarrassment.

_"-COULDN'T BELIEVE IT, I OWLED BELLATRIX TO SEE WHAT KIND OF MISTAKE THE DAILY PROPHET HAD MADE, BUT SHE TOLD ME IT WAS RIGHT! YOU'VE GONE AND BEEN SORTED IN WITH MUDBLOODS AND FILTHY HALF-BREEDS, DID WE TEACH YOU NOTHING? WAIT TILL YOU GET HOME, I HAVE HALF A MIND TO DRAG YOU BACK NOW! YOU'VE BESMIRCHED THE BLACK FAMILY NAME, NO SON OF MINE SHOULD BE IN GRYFFINDOR, YOU'RE THE SHAME OF THE MOST NOBLE HOUSE OF BLACK-"_

_"Finite Incantatum!"_

The letter exploded in a rather impressive, yet small, fireball as the spell crashed into it. Everyone immediately turned to look at where the spell had originated, only to see Sirius.

His chair had fallen over backwards when he had leapt to his feet, and he still held his wand pointed at where the letter had been. James noted that Sirius's hand was shaking, and, judging by the look on Sirius's face, definitely with anger. Before anyone could say a word, Sirius jammed his wand back into the pocket of his robes, turned right around, and stormed out of the Great Hall.

Bellatrix and Narcissa, sitting over at the Slytherin table, smirked as they watched him go. It had been a simple, yet effective plan, sending that old copy of the Daily Prophet to his over-reactive mother. That would put him in his place and teach him not to try and blackmail them, as well as showing him exactly what Slytherins were made of.

The echoing crash of the doors, as Sirius exited, seemed to shatter the startled silence that hung in the air and everyone began chattering away. James and the remaining Marauders stared at one another in alarm for a moment, before quickly racing off after Sirius.

Five minutes later, Peter rushed back into the Great Hall and snatched something off the table before turning and re-exiting the hall.

-

James hurried up the changing staircase, trying to catch up with the red dot on the map labeled 'Sirius Black'. Remus was right behind him, and Peter only lagging slightly.

They were all relieved when they finally caught up with him.

"What was that all about, Sirius?" James asked, jogging up beside him.

"Nothing, mind your own business," He snapped in the form of a reply.

James stopped and Sirius continued on to wherever he was going. Before James could continue after him, Remus grabbed his shoulder and shook his head slightly.

"Lets wait for him up in the common room, I think he needs to cool down."

James nodded reluctantly, and the three made their way up to the seventh floor.

-

Sirius, meanwhile, had stormed into the library and earned a severe glare from the librarian, Madam Pince. Taking a deep breath, he walked past rows of ancient tomes, mixed with brand new books, until he reached a small table near the back of the library. A towering shelf on invisibility blocked his view of Madam Pince, and her view of him.

"Wish I had been invisible," He muttered fiercely, glaring at the shelf as if it were responsible for all of his problems.

He didn't stay angry and brooding though; the musty smell and the echoing silence of the library had a calming effect at any time and it usually put Sirius right to sleep. He stared sleepily at an abandoned quill and piece of parchment for a full five minutes, before he even realized what he was looking at. He blinked several times, then pulled the parchment and quill slowly towards him and began to write.

_Mum,_

_I'm sorry I disappointed you..._

He wrote for several minutes before he signed his name at the bottom, rolled up the letter, and stuffed it into his pocket. Feeling slightly miserable now, he stood up and made his way from the library and off towards the Owlery,wondering how he could have been so stupid as to let himself be sorted into Gryffindor, he had practically suggested it! If he had refused, would the Sorting Hat have placed him in Slytherin with the rest of his family?

With these thought swirling through his head, he headed down the hall to his right, intent on taking a little known shortcut, and getting the letter sent as quickly as possible.__

-

It was nearly midnight when Sirius gave the password to the Fat Lady, who told him off for being up so late. He'd avoided Andromeda at all costs, then gone and apologized to Bellatrix, which hadn't been a fun experience, but a looming sense of shame had fueled his efforts, and now he was ready to just pack up and go home if he got word to.

He didn't expect anyone to be in the common room at such a late hour, but as soon as he stepped into the room, three pairs of probing eyes were watching him.

"I don't want to talk."

James frowned, "Your mum is mental, I can't believe she didn't want you in Gryffindor... The old hag…sorry," he added, as an afterthought.

Sirius frowned as well, and then shook his head. "No she was right, I shouldn't of-"

"You're not actually blaming yourself for being in Gryffindor?" Remus cut in, a look of surprise on his face.

"Don't listen to all that stuff she's saying," James ordered.

Sirius raised an eyebrow in silent question, waiting to see what else James had to say.

"Look at it this way...Bellatrix, that git in Slytherin, she's your cousin right?" At a nod from Sirius, James continued. "She's the one always insulting everyone and making snide comments. She said something to Evans yesterday that upset her; we're the only ones that have the right to pick on her! Anyway...do you really _want_ to be like her?"

When Sirius hesitated for a second, James quickly dealt out the rest of his speech with a sly smirk, "Snape is in Slytherin..."

"What was I thinking?" Sirius cried in horror, quickly reverting to his old self. "How would I survive if I was in the same house as that slimy git? I bet he doesn't bathe, that's why his hairs so greasy. Not to mention the horrors of Bellatrix and Narcissa! Those two spoiled brats wouldn't let me play pranks on anyone; I must've gone temporarily mental!"

"I thought he was always mental," Peter commented with a raised eyebrow.

Remus laughed quietly, as he watched Sirius continue with his rant. "He is, but don't tell him that."

* * *

- Jade-chan

_Jade's Note:_

In loving memory of my Aunt Brenda.

In hopes that there will one day be a definite cure for cancer.


	14. Chapter 14: The Horrors of the Dark

**The Marauders' Years: Year One******

**Chapter Fourteen**

**The Horrors of the Dark**

* * *

Midnight, a time often thought of as the one moment in time that ghosts are free to roam the living world, goblins wreak havoc and little children are most afraid to be out during this unholy hour.

Midnight did not bother the Marauders, however, as they walked back to the common room after having been in the kitchens for half the night. Remus had been reluctant to go out as always, but James and Sirius had managed to talk him into it. The two were quite pleased**;** it took less and less effort to drag Remus out. Sadly, he would revert to stubbornly standing by the rules if something happened, so they always found themselves back on square one afterwards.

Thankfully**,** the trip to the kitchens had been quite uneventful**,** and neither Peter nor Remus had one complaint once they had filled themselves up with the snacks the eager elves had forced upon them.

James was just congratulating their stealth, despite him having forgotten the invisibility cloak, when he instinctively paused. It had become almost second nature for the four to sense when teachers were around. It was always too quiet if it were Professor Hikage, and that's what alerted James.

Sirius and the others had stopped as well.

"Hikage?" Sirius suggested quietly**,** as he glanced around suspiciously.

James frowned and shrugged slightly, motioning for everyone to follow him**,** as he veered off course and took a detour.

-

Allysia kept her wand raised high**,** as she and Alice backed into a corner. She wasn't at all sure where they were, or why they were there. She knew they had been asleep moments before, but she was a naturally light sleeper**,** and the slight brush of air as she walked had jolted her awake. She had never slept walked before, and despite a nagging warning not to wake a sleepwalker**,** she had shaken her fellow Gryffindor and friend Alice awake.

That had been moments ago, before the monster had appeared**,** scaring Alice so badly she had dropped her wand just as she pulled it out. Allysia realized it was up to her to keep the creature at bay, but this wasn't something she was used to.

"Stay back..." Allysia demanded, holding her _"Lumos!"_-lit wand high**,** in an attempt to get a clear view of their shadowy assailant.

The creature did not heed her advice, but merely advanced, the shadows surrounding it seeming to shimmer slightly with each movement.

She closed her eyes, felt Alice grab hold of her arm in terror, and then brought her wand down sharply. _"Expelliarmus!"_

-

"Hold on."

Sirius glanced at Remus quizzically, but he and the other Marauders obediently halted their progress.

"What's up, Remmy?" James questioned, keeping his voice as low as possible. He wasn't sure if they had managed to lose Hikage yet.

Remus pointed down an adjoining hallway. Curiously, all the torches and candles along the walls were extinguished. "I thought I heard something."

"That's nice," Peter replied brightly, but he glanced around nervously nevertheless. "We'll look into it in the morning...or, better yet- let's get a professor to investigate!"

"Did you hear a Professor, or something else?" Sirius inquired.

Peter proceeded to sulk**,** as his opinion was**,** once again, blatantly ignored.

"Something else," Remus replied assuredly.

"Off we go then!" James announced, pointing down the darkened hall.

Sirius grinned and pulled out his wand, lighting it with a muttered "_Lumos."_

"Let's indeed."

**-**

It didn't take long for the boys to come across Allysia and Alice. The air was chilly and Alice had already slumped to the floor. Allysia was still calling out spells**, **though her voice was starting to falter, but her cat had joined the fight at some point. The hissing and spitting of the pacing animal was what immediately drew the Marauder's attention to the girls' plight.

_"Riddikulus!"_ Allysia yelled desperately, dropping to her knees as the creature morphed into the familiar four-legged horror. The spell fluttered weakly toward the creature, which nimbly leapt aside.

"Bloody hell**,**" Sirius said in surprise.

Due to the situation**,** Remus didn't even think of berating his friend's use of language.

"Do something..." James muttered**,** not keen on attracting the creature's attention, but not willing to let it close in anymore on his fellow Gryffindors.

Sirius snapped out of his shocked daze and surprised them all by grinning. "Anything?"

Remus nodded numbly, unsure of what was going on in Sirius's warped mind.

Sirius pointed his wand at his throat. _"Sonorous."_

Once again the familiar Wizarding song assaulted everyone's eardrums, this time it was magically magnified and echoing off of the walls. There wasn't a doubt that the teachers would hear and Remus was reminded of the saying about genius and insanity...

Either because of the noise, or because of the impending threat the teachers might pose to it, the creature once again retreated into the shadows.

"I'm not going to make it to second year," Peter commented bleakly.

Sirius pointed frantically at his throat**,** then shrugged, he continued doing this till all three of his friends were staring at him.

Finally Remus sighed rolling his eyes. "You don't know how to reverse the spell?"

Sirius shrugged again and grinned.

"We might live to second year, but I wonder how many of us will pass our exams…" Remus grumbled.

* * *

- Jade-chan


	15. Chapter 15 : Library Trip

**The Marauders' Years: Year One **

**Chapter Fifteen**

** Library Trip**

* * *

****

The chaos that followed the Marauder's midnight adventure was little more than a blur to any of them, mostly because they couldn't figure out whether the teachers wished to expel the lot of them or what.

Yet nothing more happened in the following weeks of any great importance until Allysia and Alice got out of the hospital wing.

-

The four friends dragged themselves out of bed the next day and down to a late breakfast. The Marauders managed to make it there before the crowd, but the other half of the first year Gryffindor group was already seated at the table.

"Morning, girls." Sirius greeted, sitting himself down at the table and eyeing a strawberry breakfast tart. "Food!"

Lily rolled her eyes as the other three boys sat down as well and turned pleadingly to her friends. "Must I?"

One of Lizz's eyebrows shot up, but she made no comment.

"Yes." Alice answered.

By now all four boys were wondering what was going on.

"Right… We want to call an official truce in light of recent events."

This time it was James's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Oookay."

Everyone blinked for a few moments before Sirius broke the silence.

"Food!!!"

He had discovered a brand new breakfast food that the house elves had just put out: A tart stuffed with eggs and other breakfast items.

-

"Well..." Remus said as the four walked with the rest of the class to History of Magic. (Finals were fast approaching and the classes were mainly reviewing what they'd already covered, but they still received mounds of homework.)

"Well what?" James asked absently, he was searching his bags for sugar quills. Sugar quills were the only things capable of almost keeping anyone awake through that class, but they were only guaranteed to help resist boredom for around five minutes tops.

"Now that we know we're not getting expelled, should we continue fruitlessly trying to get house points in a way that shall lose points-"

Sirius opened his mouth, most likely to answer with a 'yes' of some form or other, but Remus quickly pressed on.

"_Or_, should we do something else. "

"Like what?" Peter asked cautiously. He knew Remus was far more likely to come up with something safe, but that didn't mean it would be something he was fond of doing.

"Like" Remus said, looking mildly annoyed at no one being overjoyed at his idea, whatever it may be. Not that he had expected them to be enthused, but still... "Studying for final exams. Which, might I remind all of you, are less than two weeks away."

Peter gaped, obviously having needed reminding. Sirius merely shrugged, he had already pointedly ignored any suggestions of extra studying made several weeks earlier.

"Anything more entertaining?" James asked, as they entered the classroom and headed for their group of seats near the back.

Remus said nothing, only looking slightly dejected that his idea had been vetoed.

-

Everyone waited quietly as Professor Binns floated in through the blackboard, but that didn't last long. Immediately after arriving he began a long drawn out speech reviewing an earlier history subject, something on a goblin uprising. The entire class groaned as they realized he had given the exact same speech the lesson before, apparently he had forgotten.

After class, on the way to dinner, the Marauders suddenly found themselves accompanied by Frank.

"Never been more bored in my life." Frank announced, amazingly back on speaking terms with the Marauders.

Not missing a beat due to Frank's sudden talkativeness, Sirius answered in agreement. "Yeah, I sent a note anonymously to Dumbledore saying we needed a new History of Magic teacher, but he wrote me back and said Professor Binns has never missed a day of work. Sorta unnerving that he knew who to write back too though..."

"Dedicated teachers... How can we make Binns miss a day?" James pondered aloud. "How do you delay a ghost who's that dull?"

Peter shook his head. "Can't be done."

James, Sirius, and Frank sighed. Peter was right.

"Least we have Defence Against the Dark Arts to look forward to tomorrow." James announced. "That's never boring."

"It was rather scary once or twice though..." Peter quickly added. "Those Boggarts were something else." He continued on with a slightly thoughtful expression. "You haven't been up against one yet, Remus. What will it turn into for you?"

Remus, who had been silently listening, suddenly blinked, ignoring Peter's question. "Boggarts...."

No one heard him, however, because Sirius had just somehow pulled his Flitterbloom out of his pocket. Showing off that he had managed to make his harmless plant a little less than harmless. The plant now twitched slightly at any sudden movements.

"Just need to grow it a bit bigger." Sirius said proudly. "Then we can leave Bob near the Slytherin common room and let him do the rest."

"What's up, Remus?" James questioned when Remus didn't throw in his usual bit about getting detention.

"I just thought of something..." Remus answered absently. "I'm going to go check out a book from the library."

The remaining boys watched in slight confusion as Remus immediately turned around and headed off for the library.

"What's that about?" Sirius questioned.

The others shrugged and Peter announced excitedly, "I just remembered something! Earlier I heard exams were being called off! Something about having to search the school..."

-

Remus paused only long enough to greet the aging librarian before he grabbed the nearest book on dark creatures. Soon he was sitting at his favorite little table flipping through the pages, a look of utmost concentration on his pale face. He took no notice of anything but the book for quite a while.

So suddenly that he would have startled someone, if anyone had been in the library, Remus snapped the book shut with a triumphant and slightly grim smile.

Things weren't quite so sketchy to him now.

* * *

- Jade-chan


	16. Chapter 16: Near the End

**The Marauders' Years: Year One **

**Chapter Sixteen**

**The Beginning of the End**

* * *

All of the first year Gryffindors looked up expectantly when Remus slid into his seat near the end of dinner. They had already discussed his suddenly disappearing to the library and were now ready to prove or disprove their hypotheses.

"Um, guys?"

When he realized everyone was already paying him the utmost attention, Remus lowered his voice and continues. "We need to talk after dinner."

Sirius frowned at this, having been ready to find out _now_. "But why not-"

"After dinner." Remus repeated firmly, and then started retrieving a small portion of food to place on his plate.

The other Marauders plus Frank and the girls didn't attempt to make Remus reveal more, he obviously had made up his mind to wait. Though, they couldn't quite figure out why.

-

The Marauders lost the girls by going up to their dormitory. Frank had been talked into keeping them occupied, which they all found slightly odd. They still had no idea why Frank had been snapping at them after Christmas break.

Dismissing all thoughts that would have caused him to sit and think all night, Sirius cornered Remus immediately. "Tellllllll meeeeeeeeeeeeee."

Remus, James, and Peter stared at Sirius oddly when they heard the whining tone in his voice but, nevertheless, Remus began telling them what he knew.

According to Remus, the creature that roamed the halls of the school was a shape shifter. He had checked up on the different kinds of shape shifters, but hadn't been able to pinpoint exactly what kind it was.

"I think we should go to Professor Dumbledore with the information I've found out." Remus stated matter-of-factly.

James and Sirius rolled their eyes in unison at this. They both had high hopes for the end of the year. James was planning on their being the heroes that won the House Cup for Gryffindor, but Sirius's mind was traveling on more diabolical paths that had yet to be revealed

-

Peter's face was morbid as the group snuck past Frank, the girls, and the prefects. Sirius and James had announced in a more-or-less joyful manner that they would be testing Remus's theory tonight.

"Why do I have to come?" He hissed as soon as the portrait was quietly shut.

"You don't have to." Sirius returned in a whisper. "You want to."

Peter remained sullenly quiet for a few minutes after this statement.

"And _why_, pray tell, are we not going to the headmaster?" Remus questioned in an agitated whisper as the group made their way down the grand staircase.

"That would take away all of the adventure, we wouldn't want it to be _too_ easy."

This remark earned James a dubious glare from Remus.

The four boys shuffled along for a while in a slightly animus silence due to conflicts of opinion. But they all still continued on, each of them wished to win a few house points to make up for their year of fun.

-

"Maybe it left?" Peter suggested with a tinge of hopefulness in his voice.

"Maybe it heard us coming, but couldn't see us, and it left." Remus didn't sound very hopeful for this outcome though.

"Maybe we should have brought bait?" Sirius mused. "Maybe it eats Slytherins...?"

"And maybe it eats peanut butter sandwiches." Remus countered in annoyance.

Sirius simply shrugged, unfazed.

"Today is April thirtieth." Peter commented thoughtfully.

James managed to turn his head enough to give Peter a quizzical look. "...So?"

"It just feels like it should be more like Friday the thirteenth." Peter replied sorrowfully.

"Shhh!" Remus hissed, putting an end to the banter.

They all stood as quietly as they could, none quite sure what hallway that had wandered into whilst they talked. The sounds of slow echoing footsteps rewarded their diligent listening.

"Who?" Remus whispered in a worried tone. He trusted James and Sirius to be able to identify most of the teachers by the sound of their footsteps. Many midnight raids of the kitchens were the reason for this uncanny ability.

"Dunno." Sirius finally replied.

The four boys stood silently as the footsteps approached, always slow, always echoing. It was a rather frightening combination when you were unsure of your whereabouts and shadows rose up all about you.

The footsteps slowed, then stopped. The four held their breath as they waited to discover what would happen next. The footsteps did not continue, but instead they heard the soft footfalls of some sort of animal.

"Wands out." James instructed as he quickly pulled the invisibility cloak from them.

"Ready." Came three replies, though they varied in degree at sounding particularly confident in their statement.

"_Expeliarmus!_" James yelled, pointing his wand at a shadow that had just detached itself from the surrounding darkness to leap at them.

The creature broke off from its attack mid-leap and disappeared back into the shadows.

"_Tarrentangela!_" Sirius had turned around so that he was back to back with James in the small circle of torchlight and had managed to predict where the creature would attack from next.

Once again the monster was forced to break off its attack prematurely. The next instant the shadows to their left warped, and the sound of claws became more prominent as the creature walked.

Peter had backed against the wall, his wand held more like a club or a stick than the spell-casting device it was meant to be. Ollivander would have been shamed.

"_Reductor!_" Remus yelled as the creature, now sporting claws nearly five-inched in lenth, leapt at them from the side. The creature was immediately hurled backwards by the force of the spell, its attack once again stopped.

The four boys cast nervous glances at one another; this was starting to look like an extremely bad idea.

The monster took advantage of their momentary lack of concentration. James's quick reflexes, which might someday earn him a place on the Quidditch team, spared him an untimely demise at the creature's claws, but he didn't manage to avoid being hit at all. The force of the blow knocked him into the wall, where he slid down remaining quite still.

The creature melted back into the shadows, though they were sure it would attack again at any moment. Remus and Sirius cast nervous glances at James, Peter was fumbling through a reviving spell trying to bring him back to consciousness, but so far James made no movements.

"What _is_ that thing?" Sirius asked in disbelief as he listened to the creature pace back and forth, apparently trying to decide who was next. "It almost looked like a werewolf."

Remus started slightly at this assumption, but his mind began churning as remembered words assaulted him.__

_"You haven't been up against one yet, Remus. What will it turn into for you?"_

_"A boggart is a creature that can take the form of your worst fear..." Remus answered timidly, he wasn't exactly thrilled with speaking in public. "They're usually found hiding in dark protected areas. Like drawers, closets, and-"_

_...and the boggart changed quick as lightning into a vicious-looking snake. Alice gave a startled shriek and darted back over to Lily-_

"It's a boggart...." Remus said in disbelief.

* * *

- Jade-chan


	17. Chapter 17: Unraveled Mysteries

**The Marauders' Years: Year One **

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Unraveled Mysteries**

* * *

Remus's pronouncement was followed by James's eyelids suddenly fluttering, then opening.

"James is awake! I worked the spell right!" Peter informed them, he sounded slightly disbelieving.

"I'm going to have one bad headache tomorrow..." James muttered weakly as he slowly stood up.

Sirius kept his eyes trained on the edges of shadow. "It's up to something... Why hasn't it attacked again?"

"Didn't any of you hear me?" Remus asked angrily. "I know what it is, it's a Boggart! We have to use the _Riddikulus_ spell to weaken it."

Before anyone could comment on this, the last remaining torchlight went out.

They saw more than heard it suddenly spring. Four wands came up to emit the same spell.

"_Riddikulus!_"

An explosion sounded from four of the same spell targeting one entity and all consciousness slipped away.

-

James groggily opened one eye to see quite a few eyes staring back. One pair dark brown, another pair a slightly amber color, and yet another that were so light brown that they were nearly grey. Those he could pick out as his three best friends... but there was one pair that was slightly obscured by half-moon glasses.

"Good to see that you're awake." Professor Dumbledore greeted.

James sat up, one eyebrow raised. "Um?"

Remus to was looking at the Headmaster curiously and James realized that each of his friends must have been asleep too before the Headmaster arrived. But that still made no sense.

Why was the Headnaster in their dorm room...?

James almost groaned as his memories caught up with him. Now they were in for it.

Dumbledore smiled benignly at them for a moment before speaking. "I'm sure you're all wondering what happened last night.

"It's… morning?" Remus questioned with a confused look on his face.

"Yes, I'm afraid you were all out for the rest of that night." One white eyebrow arched up. "I admit though, I'm quite curious on why you were _out_ and about that night at all."

The four boys launched into four rather separate stories that were quickly collaborated into their having wanted to study a bit more in the library and then having gone for a midnight snack.

Dumbledore nodded, only looking slightly skeptical of their story.

"You will all be happy to know the dark creature that has been haunting the corners of the school, is now gone. I trust you all wish to know more?"

At several curious stares, Dumbledore continued. "Yes, well, it turns out that the creature was indeed a Boggart, as it seems Mr. Lupin discovered-"

"Waaaaaaaaaaait." Sirius interrupted suddenly. "How did you know what it was, or that Remus found out what it was? ...Or any of that!"

"You mean, how did I know you four were out of bed?" Dumbledore questioned mildly.

The four boys nodded.

"It seems you have Mr. Longbottom to thank for that. Perhaps you didn't know, but Mr. Longbottom's parents wanted him to avoid socializing with you four. Though I won't go into the details, it seems they were worried that one of you had more of his family in him than he did. Mr. Longbottom was quite agitated by this, but in the end he chose to make his own choices. When he heard you four were poking around in things you shouldn't and didn't show up for bed, he grew worried and informed me."

Peter spoke up finally, looking slightly nervous on the prospect of addressing the Headmaster. "Right... But, Sir, you said 'that night'... don't you mean 'last night'?"

Dumbledore smiled, obviously pleased. "Very intuitive of you, Mr. Pettigrew. You four have been asleep for that night and last. Thanks to the Dreamless Sleep potion Madam Pomphrey was kind enough to whip up. How long has it been since any of you actually slept an entire night?"

The four immediately looked anywhere but at the Professor; between monster hunting, midnight snacks, studying, and the Marauders' Map they hadn't really gotten to bed at decent hours.

Dumbledore nodded knowingly, his eyes twinkling. "Yes well, on another note, exams have been reinstated and the school shall stay open! Thanks to all of you."

Peter started making a gagging noise as he stared at the Headmaster, disbelief clearly etched across his features.

Remus's eyes widened in alarm as he quickly turned to James, Sirius, and Peter. "Quick! Start quizzing me... Ooh no, how am I going to pass now?"

-

"Glad that's over." Remus sighed as the group exited their final class exam. Aside from the test, the room had been nearly unbearable. Sunshine had streamed through the window baking everyone that was unlucky enough to have a seat near the portals to the grounds. Needless to say, the coolness of the halls was a welcome relief.

"I think my sugar quill melted..." Sirius informed the others mournfully.

"You're not supposed to bring any other kind of quill in for the exams..." Remus started, but James broke in.

"Decent marks, no classes till next year, and we're famous!" James declared.

Remus rolled his eyes at this. "A bit of hero worship and you're head inflates like a balloon."

"I failed." Peter advised the others. "I missed every question."

"Unless you chose the wrong answers on purpose, then you couldn't have." Remus told him. "And I'm sure you got most of the answers right."

Sirius chose to interrupt any further reference to exams to state in a rather dramatic fashion. "It is now time to let you all in on my grand plot!"

The other three boys' only response was to raise their eyebrows skeptically.

Sirius motioned for James, Remus, and Peter to follow him into an empty classroom. There he laid out his carefully detailed plans....

-

All of the Gryffindors let out a cheer as it was announced that, with a little help from the Marauders newly earned fifty points, Gryffindor had managed to win the house cup.

Heedless of all the cheering, Sirius, James, and their almost unwilling companions proceeded with the ultimate trick. Hidden by the house banners, multicolored balloons hung ominously above the many students' heads. All that was need was for them to be set free.

And that was indeed what the Marauders did.

With a jab of their wands, hundreds of balloons plummeted from the ceiling, revealing that inside there was more than air.

As the balloons landed amongst the table they splashed their burden, pumpkin juice, over everyone, including the teachers.

-

In the end it was decided that fifty points would be taken back away from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw would receive the House Cup, and the four Marauders would have a particularly large amount of homework for the summer holidays along with a detention for the start of the year.

Things could have gone worse though, right?

If you think about it, it wasn't such a bad first year. The mysterious monster ate no one, the Slytherins were covered in pumpkin juice, and four friends met to become some of the most legendary practical jokers in all of Hogwarts' history. (Though at the moment, they being eleven and all, their jokes aren't that brilliant. As Lizz might put it, a few were particularly 'lame'.)

Nope, it wasn't bad for a first year... and next year would be even better.

* * *

- Jade-chan


End file.
